Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

DeepSeek-V3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.8 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 18 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.1

DeepSeek

42.8

Rank #108 Confirmed

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

NVIDIA

40.0

Rank #155 Confirmed

Summary

They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher in 6 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1 leads 60.3 to 48.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $0.95 for DeepSeek-V3.1.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Provider	DeepSeek	NVIDIA
Noometry Index	42.8	40.0
Released	2025-08-21	2026-08-11
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	164K	262K
Max output	8K	262K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.25	$0.05
Output $ / M tokens	$0.95	$0.20
Results tracked	27	18

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

DeepSeek-V3.1: 40.3 (#144), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Coding	1417	1375
WeirdML	38.4%	—

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 27.9 (#110), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Hard Prompts	1417	1337
SimpleBench	40%	—
Kagi LLM Benchmark	53.2%	—
DTBench	82.7%	—
LMCA	24.3%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.92	—
ForecastBench	58	—

Math DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 38.9 (#122), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Math	1420	1359

Knowledge DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 43.7 (#90), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Expert	1405	1356
Vectara Hallucination Rate	5.5%	—

Multilingual DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 51.6 (#106), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Non-English	1400	1295
LMArena Chinese	1469	1359
LMArena French	1447	1366
LMArena German	1411	1282
LMArena Japanese	1378	1206
LMArena Korean	1337	1238
LMArena Russian	1405	1253
LMArena Spanish	1431	1345

Instruction Following DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 73.9 (#110), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Instruction Following	1400	1318

Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.3 (#232), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Longer Query	1422	1314
Fiction.LiveBench	52.8%	—

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-V3.1 leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 60.3 (#98), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Text	1420	1327
LMArena Creative Writing	1401	1254
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1436	1280
LMArena Multi-Turn	1408	1328

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-V3.1 lists at $0.25 and $0.95.

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (40.3 vs 40.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.