Model comparison
MiniMax M1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
MiniMax M1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.3 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
NVIDIASummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 5 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax M1 leads 53.1 to 48.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 40.3 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2025-06-13 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 40K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.55 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.20 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 18 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1375 |
Reasoning Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1339 | 1337 |
Math Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1361 | 1359 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1317 | 1356 |
Multilingual MiniMax M1 leads
MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1319 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1360 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1370 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1217 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1266 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1329 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1353 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1318 |
Long Context MiniMax M1 leads
MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1314 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |
Writing & Preference MiniMax M1 leads
MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1254 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1328 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax M1 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
MiniMax M1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.3 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 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; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.
Is MiniMax M1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (39.9 vs 40.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.