Mistral Large 4 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Mistral Large 4 leads Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on coding, 56.4 to 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 28.4x less per output token ($0.147 vs $4.18 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 12 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Large 4 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: which to pick
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 56.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
Pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for output tokens 28.4x cheaper ($0.147 vs $4.18 per million).
- Shared results
- 12
- Mistral Large 4 only
- 69
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 8
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 scores 56.4 against 22.6.
5 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 38.4 against 12.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a AA Agentic Index result, 3.5.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Large 4 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1257.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Mistral Large 4 $0.0034, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has the number, $0.06.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Large 4 56.4 from 5 benchmarks, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 22.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 48.6 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Mistral Large 4 78.4% against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 0.0%, 78.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Large 4 $4.18 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 per million output tokens, 28.4x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Large 4 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 | Mistral Large 4 | Bars | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 4 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 4 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 12 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index40
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 60.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1543 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 26.8 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.8% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 27.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 78.4% | 0.0% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 30.6% | 3.0% | Mistral Large 4 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 45.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 10.9% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 33.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 14.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 29.5% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| SciCode | 54.2% | 32.1% | Mistral Large 4 |
| FrontierCode | 39.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1213.2 | 769.2 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1478 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1467 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1559 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1487 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 38.4 | 12.9 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.0 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 3.5 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveBench research | 28.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 8.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 11.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 54.7% | 18.5% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 30.4% | 2.6% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 31.7% | 2.9% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 56.2% | 17.0% | Mistral Large 4 |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 83.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 12.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 74.3% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.0% | 10.6% | Mistral Large 4 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 88.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 33.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1444 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1444 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1442 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1288 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 98.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 58.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 26.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ProofBench | 10.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1469 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1462 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 54.2% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1448 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1433 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1425 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1439 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1257 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1272 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1225 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1275 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1252 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1259 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1232 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1202 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench design | 65.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.4% | 4.3% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 81.3% | 60.3% | Mistral Large 4 |
| DTBench | 88.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMCA | 35.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 28.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 20.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1431 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1422 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1363 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1272 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1433 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1422 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1492 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1415 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1492 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1455 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1417 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1435 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1428 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1386 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1378 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1283 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1284 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | 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 | Mistral Large 4 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | NVIDIA |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 6, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.36 | $0.0534 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.18 | $0.147 |
| Coding index | 56.4 | 22.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.06 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Large 4 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for coding?
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 56.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning. Pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for output tokens 28.4x cheaper ($0.147 vs $4.18 per million).
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Mistral Large 4 costs $1.36 per million input tokens and $4.18 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.0534 and $0.147. Cost per solved task is known for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Large 4 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Mistral Large 4, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Large 4 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning comparison based on?
12 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mistral Large 4'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.