Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
Wins 3 of 6 areas
Coding · Agents · Long documents
Wins 1 of 6 areas
Reasoning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning wins more areas, narrowly.NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is cheaper and better at reasoning.
Scores updated · 30 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the six areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software30Nemotron 3.5 Lightning3 of 3 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own20Nemotron 3.5 Lightning2 of 3 tests · 1 tie
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Nemotron 3.5 Lightning1 of 1 test
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking01NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B1 of 3 tests · 2 ties
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up11Even1 each
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked00Even0 each · 1 tie
Long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs 4% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+45.7points ahead
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+22.3points ahead
- Command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench 2.1+17.6points ahead
Where NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B pulls ahead
- Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+2.9points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+1.4points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 30 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingNemotron 3.5 Lightning
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by 17.624.36.7+17.6
- SWE-bench VerifiedNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 12.851.638.8+12.8
- SciCodeNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 1.532.130.6+1.5
AgentsNemotron 3.5 Lightning
- GDPValNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 770+7
- τ-Bench V3 · BankingNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 2.98.96+2.9
- Terminal-Bench 4.0tie0.50tie
ReasoningNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- GPQA DiamondNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B by 1.474.375.7+1.4
- CritPttie00.9tie
- Humanity's Last Examtie10.611.4tie
FactsEven
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 45.762.416.7+45.7
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B by 2.914.417.3+2.9
Long documentsNemotron 3.5 Lightning
- AA-LCRNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 22.360.338+22.3
Other results17 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- AA-OmniscienceNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 33.9-17.7-51.6+33.9
- RULER 1MNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 18.469.651.2+18.4
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 12.426.814.4+12.4
- RULER 256KNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 5.276.971.7+5.2
- MBPPNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 4.878.673.8+4.8
- AA IntelligenceNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 412.98.9+4
- MMLU-ProNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 3.681.978.3+3.6
- HumanEvalNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 2.477.475+2.4
- Global-MMLU-Lite (5-shot) Averagetie75.574.6tie
- PIQA (acc-norm)tie85.284.3tie
- OpenBookQAtie47.646.8tie
- PIQA (Acc.)tie83.382.6tie
- WinoGrandetie8079.2tie
- ARC-Challengetie92.792tie
- Minerva Mathtie82.882.6tie
- MMLUtie78.678.5tie
- HellaSwagtie85.585.5tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning wins three of the six areas where both have results: coding, agents and long documents. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B wins reasoning, and costs 4% less. They are level on facts and following instructions.
Which is better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. It wins 3 of the 3 coding tests both models report; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs $0.05 and $0.20. That makes NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B about 4% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 30 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 13 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 17 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.