NVIDIAOpen weights: nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-BF16Reasoning modelCompare with another modelNemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is a NVIDIA open-weights reasoning model, released 11 Aug 2026. Its best configuration ranks #457 of 785 on the BenchLeader Index at 47.4 ±6.3, in the lower half. The ± is the point: 378 other configurations score within that range, so they and this one cannot be told apart on quality alone — price and speed are what separate them. It scores highest in long context (55) and lowest in agents & tools (37). At $0.095 per million tokens blended it is among the cheapest fifth of ranked models. Output speed of 288 tokens per second puts it in the fastest quarter, with a first answer in 7.6 s. Last measured 11 Aug 2026.
- Blended price
- $0.095/M
- $0.060 in · $0.200 out
- Output speed
- 288 tok/s
- measured by Artificial Analysis
- First answer
- 7.58 s
- first token 0.25 s
- Context
- 1M
- Full answer
- 9.32 s
- median, reasoning included
- Cost per run
- $0.079
- one full Intelligence Index run
- Released
- 11 Aug 2026
- Overall index47
- Reasoning41
- Agents & tools37
- Knowledge54
- Long context55
- Composite44
Versions
NVIDIA has shipped 2 models under this name. Each is ranked on its own results; a newer version often has fewer results so far, which holds its index nearer the average until more arrive.
| Model | Released | Index | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightningthis page | 11 Aug 2026 | 47.4 | #457 |
| Nemotron Lightning 3.5 | – | – | – |
How its index has moved
19 Sept 2026 to 23 Oct 2026The index is recomputed from scratch every day, so a line moves when a new benchmark result lands, when a publisher revises a score, or when the models it is normalised against change. Early movement usually means the score is still settling.
Benchmark results
See all LLM benchmarks. One column per reasoning effort. Rank is among every configuration of every model on that benchmark. Hover a score for the run it came from.
Metadata
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Openness Indexnot in index | 83.3#12 | Artificial Analysis |
Reasoning
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (AA)not in index | 74.3%#259 | Artificial Analysis | |
| Humanity's Last Exam (AA)not in index | 10.6%#314 | Artificial Analysis | |
| CritPt | 0.0%#315 | Artificial Analysis |
Coding
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| SciCode (AA)not in index | 32.1%#207 | Artificial Analysis | |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA)not in index | 0.5%#139 | Artificial Analysis | |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (AA)not in index | 24.3%#168 | Artificial Analysis |
Agents & tools
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDPval-AA v2.1not in index | 6.9%#114 | Artificial Analysis | |
| τ³-Banking (AA) | 8.9%#153 | Artificial Analysis | |
| AutomationBenchnot in index | 0.8%#199 | Artificial Analysis | |
| GDP.pdf (AA)not in index | 3.0%#182 | Artificial Analysis | |
| EnterpriseOps-Gymnot in index | 18.4%#49 | Artificial Analysis | |
| AA-Briefcase v1.1not in index | 506#53 | Artificial Analysis |
Knowledge
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | -17.7#234 | Artificial Analysis | |
| AA-Omniscience: accuracynot in index | 14.4%#436 | Artificial Analysis | |
| AA-Omniscience: non-hallucinationnot in index | 62.4%#69 | Artificial Analysis |
Long context
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-LCR | 60.3%#279 | Artificial Analysis | |
| MLCRnot in index | 2.2%#158 | Artificial Analysis |
Composite
| Benchmark | not stated | Source | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2 | 12.9#320 | Artificial Analysis |
Where to run it
Every provider serving this model through OpenRouter, with throughput and first-token latency measured on live traffic over the last 30 minutes and each provider’s own price. Purple marks the best in each column.
| Provider | Speed | First token | Input $/M | Output $/M | Context | Quantisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CoreWeave | 132 tok/s | 0.73 s | $0.070 | $0.200 | 262k | bf16 |
| io.net | 106 tok/s | 0.47 s | $0.047 | $0.134 | 262k | – |
| DeepInfra | 88 tok/s | 1.35 s | $0.060 | $0.160 | 262k | bf16 |
| Darkbloom | 50 tok/s | 1.13 s | $0.025 | $0.120 | 262k | int4 |
Price history
The price above, per 1M tokens, every day it changed.
What a task costs
Estimates from list price, output speed and time to first answer for the best configuration. “With caching” assumes three-quarters of the input is served from the prompt cache at $0.060 per 1M. Reasoning tokens are not modelled.
| Workload | Tokens in / out | Cost | With caching | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat reply | 400 / 300 | $0.0001 | $0.0001 | 8.6 s |
| Summarize a 30-page report | 12,000 / 600 | $0.0008 | $0.0008 | 9.7 s |
| Code edit | 6,000 / 1,500 | $0.0007 | $0.0007 | 12.8 s |
| Agentic coding session | 60,000 / 4,000 | $0.0044 | $0.0044 | 21.5 s |
| Structured extraction | 2,000 / 200 | $0.0002 | $0.0002 | 8.3 s |
More from NVIDIA
See also
Questions people ask
- What are Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's benchmark scores?
- As of 24 Oct 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores 47.4 ±6.3 on the BenchLeader Index, strongest in long context (55) and weakest in agents & tools (37). That rests on 5 independent benchmark results, and every score on this page links to its publisher.
- How does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning rank?
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is #457 of 785 ranked configurations on 24 Oct 2026. 378 other configurations score within its margin, so the exact position matters less than the band. The leader is Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) at 72.6.
- How much does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost per 1M tokens?
- As of 24 Oct 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.060 per 1M input tokens and $0.200 per 1M output tokens, $0.095 blended (three input tokens per output token). The list price last changed on 2 Oct 2026.
- When was Nemotron 3.5 Lightning released?
- NVIDIA released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on 11 Aug 2026.
Data as of 24 Oct 2026. Compare with another model.
Cite as: BenchLeader, “Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: benchmarks, pricing, speed and rank”, data as of 24 Oct 2026, https://www.benchleader.com/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning.