Mistral Large vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads Mistral Large on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 12.9 to 5.8, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 40.8x less per output token ($0.147 vs $6.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 3 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Large or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: which to pick
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Large has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
- Shared results
- 3
- Mistral Large only
- 41
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 17
- Like-for-like categories
- 2 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
No call
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads, 12.9 against 5.8.
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
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Mistral Large has a GPQA Diamond result, 47.7%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Mistral Large has a AIME result, 9.2%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Mistral Large has a MMLU Pro result, 69.7%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning takes 262K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Mistral Large $0.0050, 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 not benchmarked, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 22.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 23.2 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run): Mistral Large 35.1% against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 74.3%, 39.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Large $6.00 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 per million output tokens, 40.8x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Large takes 128K 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 | Bars | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 3 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index13 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 26.8 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 37.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.8% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 10.9% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 29.5% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 32.1% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 769.2 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1275 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1274 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 5.8 | 12.9 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 122.1 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 3.5 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.6% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 47.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.1% | 74.3% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.5% | 10.6% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1257 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1208 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1268 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 9.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 74.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 87.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1261 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1257 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 69.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 54.2% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 63.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 76.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 51.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| MMLU | 68.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1260 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1255 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1275 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1238 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 4.3% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| DTBench | 60.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text | 1265 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1249 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1242 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1284 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1235 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1239 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1242 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1170 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1202 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1325 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1268 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1252 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1157 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1260 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1261 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1261 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1230 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large | 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 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | NVIDIA |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | February 26, 2024 | August 11, 2026 |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.0534 |
| Output $/Mtok | $6.00 | $0.147 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 22.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.06 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Large better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for coding?
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Large has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Mistral Large costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 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 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Large vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning comparison based on?
3 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Large's coding index rests on 0 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.