Model comparison

GPT-5.4 mini vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.4 mini OpenAI

44.8

Rank #69 Confirmed

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning NVIDIA

39.3

Rank #156 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.4 mini 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 writing & preference, where GPT-5.4 mini leads 64.2 to 48.5.
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $4.50 for GPT-5.4 mini.
  • GPT-5.4 mini accepts more context: 400K tokens versus 262K.
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.4 mini and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning specifications
GPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
ProviderOpenAINVIDIA
Noometry Index44.839.3
Released2026-03-172026-08-11
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window400K262K
Max output128K262K
Input $ / M tokens$0.75$0.06
Output $ / M tokens$4.50$0.16
Results tracked4618

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 45.0 (#67), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Coding14381370
FrontierCode27%—
LMArena WebDev1397—
SciCode49.9%—
WeirdML60.3%—
ALE-Bench1,189—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.4 mini: 29.6 (#74), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
DeepResearch Bench36.3%—

Reasoning GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 30.3 (#77), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Hard Prompts14241335
ARC-AGI-218.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark37.9%—
NYT Connections (extended)61.8%—
ARC-AGI-163.7%—
CritPt10%—
Chess Puzzles24%—
Thematic Generalization61.7%—
Mystery Game Puzzles11%—
DTBench80%—
LMCA40.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index148.83—
ForecastBench57—

Math GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 45.4 (#63), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Math14181355
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)51.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 49.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
ProofBench21%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)28.3%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)2.1%—

Knowledge GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 51.4 (#62), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Expert14341354
GPQA Diamond86.9%—
SimpleQA Verified29.4%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate5.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.4 mini: 39.0 (#51), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Vision1245—

Multilingual GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 52.1 (#94), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Non-English14051292
LMArena Chinese14461356
LMArena French14401369
LMArena German14071280
LMArena Japanese13751213
LMArena Korean13691233
LMArena Russian14171257
LMArena Spanish14031321

Instruction Following GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 74.3 (#99), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Instruction Following14051317

Long Context GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 42.9 (#107), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Longer Query14071312

Writing & Preference GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 64.2 (#56), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniNemotron 3.5 Lightning
LMArena Text14111324
LMArena Creative Writing13701254
EQ-Bench Creative Writing16651280
LMArena Multi-Turn14291327

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.4 mini better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 39.3 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 mini 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; GPT-5.4 mini lists at $0.75 and $4.50.

Is GPT-5.4 mini or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?

GPT-5.4 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 45.0 versus 39.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.4 mini does, with 400K tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.4 mini and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.4 mini has 46 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.

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