Muse Spark 1.2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Muse Spark 1.2 leads Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on coding, 55.7 to 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 28.9x less per output token ($0.147 vs $4.25 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 19 benchmarks have a result for both.
Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: which to pick
Pick Muse Spark 1.2 for coding: it scores 55.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
Pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for output tokens 28.9x cheaper ($0.147 vs $4.25 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.06 against $0.64).
- Shared results
- 19
- Muse Spark 1.2 only
- 78
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 1
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 scores 55.7 against 22.6.
5 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 leads, 39.6 against 12.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 leads, 43.2 against 3.5.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Muse Spark 1.2 has a MMLU Pro result, 88.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Muse Spark 1.2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1312.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Muse Spark 1.2 $0.0034, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Muse Spark 1.2 $0.64, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.06.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Muse Spark 1.2 55.7 from 5 benchmarks, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 22.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 52.2 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- MedScribe (Vals AI): Muse Spark 1.2 90.1% against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 4.3%, 85.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Muse Spark 1.2 $4.25 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 per million output tokens, 28.9x apart.
- Context window
- Muse Spark 1.2 takes 1.05M tokens, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Muse Spark 1.2 | Bars | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 8 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 19 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index80
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 78.2% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1534 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 72.2 | 26.8 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 86.6% | 52.8% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 6.1% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 79.1% | 0.0% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 29.9% | 3.0% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.5% | 0.0% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 21.8% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 69.7% | 10.9% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 53.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 69.5% | 29.5% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| SciCode | 57.4% | 32.1% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| FrontierSWE | 12.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| WeirdML | 60.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 769.2 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1505 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1505 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1526 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1543 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 39.6 | 12.9 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.1 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 43.2 | 3.5 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1221 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1210 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1181 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1222 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1178 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1074 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1170 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LiveBench research | 67.7% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 36.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 21.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 60.6% | 18.5% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.8% | 2.6% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 43.8% | 2.9% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 57.0% | 17.0% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 64.8% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 45.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 90.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 86.1% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.4% | 74.3% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 45.5% | 10.6% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| SimpleBench | 74.5% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 27.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1489 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1475 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1487 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1317 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | 43.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1484 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1480 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 70.9% | 54.2% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 80.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 65.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 49.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 60.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1500 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1496 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1517 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1484 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1312 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1299 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1300 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1334 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1300 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1312 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1283 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1284 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LiveBench design | 67.1% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.5% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 47.7% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 90.1% | 4.3% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.0% | 60.3% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| DTBench | 94.7% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMCA | 48.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1482 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1462 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1436 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1304 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1483 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1476 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1509 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1462 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1495 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1484 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1483 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1502 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1473 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1453 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1443 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1291 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1313 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Meta Muse Spark 1.2 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | NVIDIA |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | August 5, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.25 | $0.0534 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.25 | $0.147 |
| Coding index | 55.7 | 22.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.64 | $0.06 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Muse Spark 1.2 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for coding?
Pick Muse Spark 1.2 for coding: it scores 55.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. Pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for output tokens 28.9x cheaper ($0.147 vs $4.25 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.06 against $0.64).
Which is cheaper, Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Muse Spark 1.2 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $4.25 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.0534 and $0.147. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Muse Spark 1.2 costs $0.64 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.06.
Which has the bigger context window, Muse Spark 1.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Muse Spark 1.2, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Muse Spark 1.2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning comparison based on?
19 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Muse Spark 1.2's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.