Model comparison
Gemma 3 27B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Google
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 3 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 5 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 40.4 to 22.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.08 / $0.16 for Gemma 3 27B.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | |
| Noometry Index | 30.8 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2025-03-11 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.08 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.16 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 43 | 18 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 27B: 22.5 (#334), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1322 | 1375 |
| Aider Polyglot | 4.9% | — |
| SciCode | 21.2% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 39.9% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 3 27B: 25.1 (#110), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 29.5% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 27B: 16.7 (#301), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1337 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.4% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 43.8% | — |
| DTBench | 52.5% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 51.5% | — |
| LMCA | 12.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 130.04 | — |
| LiveBench | 50% | — |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 27B: 25.9 (#265), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 22.5% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 55.4% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 74% | — |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 27B: 25.5 (#261), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1304 | 1356 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.7% | — |
| Confabulations | 40.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 3 27B: 32.6 (#100), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1164 | — |
| GeoBench | 52% | — |
Multilingual Gemma 3 27B leads
Gemma 3 27B: 46.9 (#155), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1334 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1346 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1368 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1362 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1308 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1349 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1349 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Gemma 3 27B leads
Gemma 3 27B: 70.6 (#160), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1321 | 1318 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 74.9% | — |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#293), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1333 | 1314 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 33.3% | — |
Writing & Preference Gemma 3 27B leads
Gemma 3 27B: 52.5 (#168), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1358 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1346 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1266 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1345 | 1328 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 79.9% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 34.6% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 3 27B better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B 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; Gemma 3 27B lists at $0.08 and $0.16.
Is Gemma 3 27B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 22.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.