Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher in 5 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 3 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 37.5 to 26.9.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 38.3 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2026-02-12 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | 262K |
| Max output | 131K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 33 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 48.1 (#58), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1381 | 1375 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 75.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1387 | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 68.3% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 618.17 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.5: 30.4 (#77), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 42.7% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | -23.16 | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 17.5 (#292), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1372 | 1337 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.9% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 55.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 16.8% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 63.7% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.68 | — |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 26.9 (#253), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1378 | 1359 |
| ProofBench | 4% | — |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.5 leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 39.2 (#135), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1379 | 1356 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 9.1% | — |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.5 leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 47.1 (#152), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1338 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1393 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1362 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1362 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1171 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1232 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1358 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | 1345 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.5 leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 71.5 (#148), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1353 | 1318 |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 37.5 (#216), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1366 | 1314 |
| CL-bench | 11.4% | — |
| CL-bench Life | 6.3% | — |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.5 leads
MiniMax-M2.5: 53.9 (#153), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1359 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1361 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1364 | 1328 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.5 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.3 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.5 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-M2.5 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.
Is MiniMax-M2.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.1 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.5 has 33 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.