Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
Updated October 21, 2026. 5 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
- Shared results
- 5
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 15
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B only
- 47
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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 11.9.
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 Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B has a Design Arena: websites result, 1159.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 262K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.0001, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $0.0010 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, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 14.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 60.3% against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 45.7%, 14.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $1.50 per million output tokens, 10.2x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 262K tokens.
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 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 5 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 69.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1275 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 26.8 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 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 | 58.5% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| SciCode | 32.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 18.9% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 27.2% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| ALE-Bench | 769.2 | 461.4 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1412 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1393 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1257 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1287 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 12.9 | 11.9 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | 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 | 43.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.3% | 61.8% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 10.6% | 4.5% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1372 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1338 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1380 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 39.3 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 39.3% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1365 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1367 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 54.2% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 78.8% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1347 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1347 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1358 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1343 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1159 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1113 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1099 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1084 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1143 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 40.5% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 60.3% | 45.7% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1357 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1355 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1333 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1359 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1346 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1357 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1325 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1311 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1305 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1398 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1360 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1366 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1344 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1366 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1378 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1340 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1317 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | 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 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 11, 2026 | July 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.0534 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.147 | $1.50 |
| Coding index | 22.6 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.06 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B for coding?
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.0534 per million input tokens and $0.147 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs $0.30 and $1.50. Cost per solved task is known for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only.
Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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 Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.