Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 47× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 88.7 to 34.7.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 60.5 | 39.3 |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 128K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | $0.16 |
| Results tracked | 16 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 65.5 (#6), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1699 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1370 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 44.9 (#14), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 52.4 (#29), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1335 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 88.7 (#4), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1355 |
Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#11), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1354 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 53.2 (#5), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1292 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1356 |
| LMArena French | — | 1369 |
| LMArena German | — | 1280 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1233 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1257 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1321 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1317 |
Long Context Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1312 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1327 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 47× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.5 versus 39.6 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 16 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.