Model comparison
Inkling vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 29× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 6 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling leads 55.1 to 37.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 66K.
Side by side
| Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 44.1 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 66K | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.87 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4.68 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 41 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Inkling: 34.5 (#234), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | 1375 |
| FrontierCode | 14% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1413 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 4.1% | — |
| SciCode | 47% | — |
| WeirdML | 32.3% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 946 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Inkling: 29.6 (#85), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 33.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 25% | — |
Reasoning Inkling leads
Inkling: 40.4 (#56), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1451 | 1337 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 36.5% | — |
| SimpleBench | 50% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 79.5% | — |
| CritPt | 5.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| DTBench | 87.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.54 | — |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Inkling: 31.3 (#225), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1479 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 33.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 4.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 88.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 0% | — |
Knowledge Inkling leads
Inkling: 55.1 (#49), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | 1356 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 40.3% | — |
Multilingual Inkling leads
Inkling: 54.0 (#52), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1434 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1490 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1458 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1446 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1429 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1404 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1429 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1448 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Inkling leads
Inkling: 75.1 (#71), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1426 | 1318 |
Long Context Inkling leads
Inkling: 43.8 (#86), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1434 | 1314 |
Writing & Preference Inkling leads
Inkling: 65.2 (#51), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1441 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1387 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1611 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1436 | 1328 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1226 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 29× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Inkling 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; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.
Is Inkling or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 66K.
How many benchmarks do Inkling and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.