Model comparison
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 34× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIA
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 37.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Qwen3.8 Max accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 56.8 |
| Released | 2026-08-11 | 2026-08-02 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Max output | 262K | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $2 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.20 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 18 | 39 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141), Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1375 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |
Reasoning Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127), Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1337 | 1496 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 40% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 156.41 |
Math Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155), Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1499 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 100% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
Knowledge Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154), Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1356 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |
Multilingual Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180), Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1295 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1359 | 1538 |
| LMArena French | 1366 | 1503 |
| LMArena German | 1282 | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1206 | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | 1238 | 1461 |
| LMArena Russian | 1253 | 1481 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1345 | 1492 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170), Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1318 | 1479 |
Long Context Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1314 | 1489 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 Max leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201), Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1327 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1328 | 1489 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 40.0 on the Noometry Index. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 34× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.8 Max?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?
Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 Max does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3.8 Max share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.