Model comparison
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2 (Jul 2025)'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 (Jul 2025) scores higher in 6 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads 62.3 to 48.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.57 / $2.30 for Kimi K2 (Jul 2025).
Side by side
| Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 41.2 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2025-07-12 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 262K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.57 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.30 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 42 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 42.4 (#102), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1399 | 1375 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 63.4% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 59.1% | — |
| GSO | 4.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 42.8% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 597.5 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 32.4 (#64), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 35.7% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 59.1% | — |
| METR Time Horizons | 59.2% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 23.3 (#179), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1384 | 1337 |
| SimpleBench | 26.3% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 64.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.01 | — |
| ForecastBench | 60.2 | — |
Math Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 42.7 (#83), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1359 |
| Omni-MATH | 65.4% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 21.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |
Knowledge Too close to call
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 37.3 (#157), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1365 | 1356 |
| MMLU-Pro | 81.9% | — |
| Confabulations | 20.4% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.9% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 65.3% | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 49.6 (#130), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1372 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1415 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1379 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1387 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1349 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1325 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1385 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1386 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 71.1 (#156), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1348 | 1318 |
| IFEval | 85% | — |
Long Context Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 41.2 (#145), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1353 | 1314 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
| CL-bench | 17.6% | — |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 62.3 (#78), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1380 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1350 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1666 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1371 | 1328 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 85.6% | — |
| WildBench | 86.2% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2 (Jul 2025)'s lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) 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 (Jul 2025) lists at $0.57 and $2.30.
Is Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) has 42 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.