Model comparison
Gemma 4 31B IT vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Gemma 4 31B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.2 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 31B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
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NVIDIASummary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 31B IT scores higher in 8 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 4 31B IT leads 60.7 to 48.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.09 / $0.34 for Gemma 4 31B IT.
Side by side
| Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | |
| Noometry Index | 43.2 | 39.3 |
| Released | 2026-04-02 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.09 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.34 | $0.16 |
| Results tracked | 35 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 41.9 (#98), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1459 | 1370 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1364 | — |
| SciCode | 43.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 52.3% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 925.5 | — |
Reasoning Too close to call
Gemma 4 31B IT: 26.4 (#119), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1448 | 1335 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.5% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 70.6% | — |
| CritPt | 1.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 5% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 53% | — |
| DTBench | 82.7% | — |
| LMCA | 39.3% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 30.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 142.74 | — |
Math Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 41.3 (#72), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1464 | 1355 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 73.3% | — |
Knowledge Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 37.9 (#141), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | 1354 |
| GPQA Diamond | 75.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 10.4% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemma 4 31B IT: 41.0 (#32), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1278 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1425 | — |
Multilingual Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 54.0 (#52), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1431 | 1292 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1478 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | 1369 |
| LMArena Russian | 1462 | 1257 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1443 | 1321 |
| LMArena German | — | 1280 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1233 |
Instruction Following Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 75.6 (#58), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1433 | 1317 |
Long Context Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 44.2 (#67), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1446 | 1312 |
Writing & Preference Gemma 4 31B IT leads
Gemma 4 31B IT: 60.7 (#92), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 31B IT | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1443 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1416 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1368 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1452 | 1327 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1120 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 4 31B IT better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Gemma 4 31B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.2 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 31B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 31B IT 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; Gemma 4 31B IT lists at $0.09 and $0.34.
Is Gemma 4 31B IT or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Gemma 4 31B IT scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.9 versus 39.6 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 31B IT and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 31B IT has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.