Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Wins 1 of 6 areas
Following instructions
Wins 4 of 6 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Long documents
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is the stronger all-rounder.Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper and better at following instructions.
Scores updated · 24 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 software04Qwen3.6 35B A3B4 of 4 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own02Qwen3.6 35B A3B2 of 4 tests · 2 ties
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking02Qwen3.6 35B A3B2 of 3 tests · 1 tie
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts01Qwen3.6 35B A3B1 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Nemotron 3.5 Lightning1 of 1 test
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up11Even1 each
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.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 90% 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 Qwen3.6 35B A3B pulls ahead
- Fixes real GitHub issues in many programming languagesSWE-bench Multilingual+27.9points ahead
- Fixes real GitHub issues in Python projectsSWE-bench Verified+21.8points ahead
- Command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench 2.1+20.6points ahead
Where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+12.9points ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+7.5points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 24 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingQwen3.6 35B A3B
- SWE-bench MultilingualQwen3.6 35B A3B by 27.939.367.2+27.9
- SWE-bench VerifiedQwen3.6 35B A3B by 21.851.673.4+21.8
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Qwen3.6 35B A3B by 20.624.344.9+20.6
- SciCodeQwen3.6 35B A3B by 4.532.136.6+4.5
AgentsQwen3.6 35B A3B
- GDPValQwen3.6 35B A3B by 12.8719.8+12.8
- BrowseCompQwen3.6 35B A3B by 11.73748.7+11.7
- Terminal-Bench 4.0tie0.50tie
- τ-Bench V3 · Bankingtie8.99.3tie
ReasoningQwen3.6 35B A3B
- Humanity's Last ExamQwen3.6 35B A3B by 11.610.622.2+11.6
- GPQA DiamondQwen3.6 35B A3B by 9.874.384.1+9.8
- CritPttie00.3tie
FactsEven
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 12.962.449.5+12.9
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyQwen3.6 35B A3B by 4.414.418.8+4.4
Following instructionsNemotron 3.5 Lightning
- IFBenchNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 7.571.964.4+7.5
Other results9 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.
- GDPval-AA v2Qwen3.6 35B A3B by 183 rating points8321015+183 rating
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexQwen3.6 35B A3B by 15.126.841.9+15.1
- AA Agentic IndexQwen3.6 35B A3B by 8.96.115+8.9
- HLE (text-only, no tools)Qwen3.6 35B A3B by 7.911.719.6+7.9
- AA IntelligenceQwen3.6 35B A3B by 5.312.918.2+5.3
- AA-OmniscienceNemotron 3.5 Lightning by 4.5-17.7-22.2+4.5
- MMLU-ProQwen3.6 35B A3B by 3.381.985.2+3.3
- PinchBenchQwen3.6 35B A3B by 2.785.488.1+2.7
- τ³-Bench BankingQwen3.6 35B A3B by 1.29.310.5+1.2
Questions people ask
Which is better, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B wins four of the six areas where both have results: coding, agents, reasoning and long documents. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning wins following instructions, and costs 90% less. They are level on facts.
Which is better for coding?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B. It wins 4 of the 4 coding tests both models report; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 35B A3B costs $0.38 and $2.25. That makes Nemotron 3.5 Lightning about 90% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 24 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 15 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 9 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.