Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o1
o1 leads Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 15.2 to 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 408.2x less per output token ($0.147 vs $60.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 5 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o1: which to pick
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; o1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick o1 for work measured by AA Coding Index or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 5
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 15
- o1 only
- 64
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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
o1
o1 leads, 15.2 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
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only o1 has a GPQA Diamond result, 73.2%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only o1 has a AIME result, 71.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only o1 has a MMLU Pro result, 83.5%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning takes 262K tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.0001, o1 $0.045 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
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 22.6 from 2 benchmarks, o1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 12.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Coding Index: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 26.8 against o1 39.7, 12.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 against o1 $60.00 per million output tokens, 408.2x apart.
- Context window
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning takes 262K tokens, o1 200K.
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 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Bars | o1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 61.7% | Only o1 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 26.8 | 39.7 | o1 |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.3% | Only o1 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 52.8% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 3.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 10.9% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 29.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 67.9% | Only o1 measured |
| SciCode | 32.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 12.9% | Only o1 measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 46.1% | Only o1 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 769.2 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1367 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1366 | Only o1 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 4.6% | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 12.9 | 15.2 | o1 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 141.7 | Only o1 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 3.5 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 18.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 2.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 2.9% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 62.6% | Only o1 measured |
| METR time horizons | Not measured | 51.1% | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 73.2% | Only o1 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.4% | Only o1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.3% | 74.7% | o1 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 10.6% | 7.0% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 76.8% | Only o1 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 30.7% | Only o1 measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 40.1% | Only o1 measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 10.0% | Only o1 measured |
| VPCT | Not measured | 37.0% | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1371 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1361 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1372 | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 71.5% | Only o1 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 90.4% | Only o1 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 89.3% | Only o1 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 73.3% | Only o1 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 14.7% | Only o1 measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 94.7% | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1388 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1390 | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 83.5% | Only o1 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.4% | Only o1 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 54.2% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.3% | Only o1 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 96.5% | Only o1 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 84.1% | Only o1 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 41.1% | Only o1 measured |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 80.0% | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1369 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1355 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1368 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1328 | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 70.3% | Only o1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 60.3% | 65.0% | o1 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 74.7% | Only o1 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 22.3% | Only o1 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 83.3% | Only o1 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 70.2% | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1366 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1367 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1347 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1168 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1372 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1358 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1394 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1337 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1346 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1396 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1344 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1345 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1356 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1355 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1378 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1360 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1358 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1162 | Only o1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1235 | Only o1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | o1 | 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 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | OpenAI o1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | August 11, 2026 | December 17, 2024 |
| Context window | 262K | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.0534 | $15.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.147 | $60.00 |
| Coding index | 22.6 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.06 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than o1 for coding?
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; o1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick o1 for work measured by AA Coding Index or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o1?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.0534 per million input tokens and $0.147 per million output tokens; o1 costs $15.00 and $60.00. Cost per solved task is known for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only.
Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o1?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, with 262K tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o1 comparison based on?
5 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and o1's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.