Model comparison
Kimi K2.6 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 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 Kimi K2.6 leads 68.5 to 48.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.95 / $4 for Kimi K2.6.
Side by side
| Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 47.7 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2026-04-20 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 262K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.95 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 51 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 50.7 (#43), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1488 | 1375 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | — |
| SciCode | 53.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,093 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Kimi K2.6: 21.9 (#137), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 12% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 6,205 | — |
Reasoning Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 40.5 (#55), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1470 | 1337 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.2% | — |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 2.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | — |
| DTBench | 90.9% | — |
| LMCA | 37.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.05 | — |
Math Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 57.0 (#41), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1475 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 57.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 25.6% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 16% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |
Knowledge Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 54.0 (#54), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1491 | 1356 |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Kimi K2.6: 31.6 (#103), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1283 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 3.9% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 21.7% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 54.9 (#37), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1446 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1521 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1471 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1450 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1443 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1427 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1446 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1464 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 76.3 (#43), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1451 | 1318 |
Long Context Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#52), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1468 | 1314 |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 68.5 (#26), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1434 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1725 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1453 | 1328 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1202 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2.6 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 20× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 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; Kimi K2.6 lists at $0.95 and $4.
Is Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Kimi K2.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.7 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.