Model comparison

GPT-5.2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 55× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.2 OpenAI

54.1

Rank #34 Confirmed

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning NVIDIA

40.0

Rank #155 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.2 scores higher in 8 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GPT-5.2 leads 50.2 to 26.8.
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.75 / $14 for GPT-5.2.
  • GPT-5.2 accepts more context: 400K tokens versus 262K.
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.2 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning specifications
GPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
ProviderOpenAINVIDIA
Noometry Index54.140.0
Released2025-12-112026-08-11
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window400K262K
Max output128K262K
Input $ / M tokens$1.75$0.05
Output $ / M tokens$14$0.20
Results tracked6718

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 51.6 (#37), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Coding14471375
SWE-bench Verified73.8%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)72.8%—
LMArena WebDev1416—
SWE-bench Multilingual66.7%—
GSO27.4%—
WeirdML72.2%—
ALE-Bench1,294—
AlgoTune2.05—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.2: 40.2 (#24), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Terminal-Bench64.9%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard55.9%—
GDPval49.7%—
Remote Labor Index2.5%—
τ²-bench Airline83%—
τ²-bench Banking32.2%—
τ²-bench Retail81.6%—
τ²-bench Telecom89.7%—
DeepResearch Bench41.1%—
LMArena Search1207—
METR Time Horizons75.3%—
Vending-Bench 23,591—

Reasoning GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 50.2 (#35), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Hard Prompts14451337
ARC-AGI-252.9%—
SimpleBench45.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark73.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)83.6%—
ARC-AGI-186.2%—
Chess Puzzles49%—
EnigmaEval10.4%—
EBR-Bench23%—
Mystery Game Puzzles23%—
DTBench90.9%—
LMCA43.9%—
Epoch Capabilities Index153.45—
ForecastBench60.1—

Math GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 60.0 (#38), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)

Knowledge GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 59.3 (#32), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Expert14451356
GPQA Diamond91.4%—
Humanity's Last Exam27.8%—
SimpleQA Verified37.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.2: 51.3 (#7), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Vision1268—
VPCT84%—
Furniture Assembly38.3%—
LMArena Document1405—

Multilingual GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 53.4 (#67), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Non-English14251295
LMArena Chinese14601359
LMArena French14551366
LMArena German14481282
LMArena Japanese14201206
LMArena Korean13921238
LMArena Russian14401253
LMArena Spanish14331345

Instruction Following GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 74.7 (#89), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Instruction Following14171318

Long Context GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 44.0 (#78), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Longer Query14281314
CL-bench18.2%—

Writing & Preference GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 66.8 (#32), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Text14391327
LMArena Creative Writing14011254
EQ-Bench Creative Writing17031280
LMArena Multi-Turn14581328

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.2 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 55× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 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; GPT-5.2 lists at $1.75 and $14.

Is GPT-5.2 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?

GPT-5.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.6 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.2 does, with 400K tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.2 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.2 has 67 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.

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