Model comparison
DeepSeek-R1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
DeepSeek
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-R1 scores higher in 7 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-R1 leads 61.5 to 48.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $2.15 for DeepSeek-R1.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 42.0 | 39.3 |
| Released | 2025-01-20 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 164K | 262K |
| Max output | 64K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.15 | $0.16 |
| Results tracked | 52 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 45.9 (#63), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1427 | 1370 |
| Aider Polyglot | 71.4% | — |
| SciCode | 35.7% | — |
| WeirdML | 41.6% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 66.7% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 804.12 | — |
| AlgoTune | 1.7 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
DeepSeek-R1: 30.4 (#68), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 35.1% | — |
| BALROG | 34.9% | — |
| METR Time Horizons | 53.8% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
DeepSeek-R1: 18.7 (#253), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1415 | 1335 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 1.3% | — |
| SimpleBench | 40.8% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 69.4% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 21.2% | — |
| CritPt | 1.1% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 83.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 69.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.3 | — |
| ForecastBench | 60 | — |
| LiveBench | 71.6% | — |
Math DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 42.0 (#70), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1401 | 1355 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 66.4% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 42.4% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 80.7% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 96.6% | — |
Knowledge DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 44.3 (#81), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1394 | 1354 |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 79.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 12.7% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 66.6% | — |
Multilingual DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 52.6 (#80), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1412 | 1292 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1443 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1415 | 1369 |
| LMArena German | 1405 | 1280 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1394 | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | 1359 | 1233 |
| LMArena Russian | 1423 | 1257 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1410 | 1321 |
Instruction Following DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 72.2 (#138), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1382 | 1317 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 80.5% | — |
| IFEval | 78.4% | — |
Long Context DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 45.4 (#36), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1391 | 1312 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 75% | — |
Writing & Preference DeepSeek-R1 leads
DeepSeek-R1: 61.5 (#84), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1428 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1406 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1500 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1404 | 1327 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 83% | — |
| WildBench | 82.8% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 48.5% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek-R1 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 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; DeepSeek-R1 lists at $0.50 and $2.15.
Is DeepSeek-R1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 45.9 versus 39.6 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-R1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-R1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.