# Gemma 3 4B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-4b-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 13

## Summary

- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 36.9 to 11.8.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.16 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 39.3 |
| Rank | 320 | 156 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $0.16 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 4B: 35.3 (#214)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | 1370 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 4B: 20.7 (#134)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 4B: 12.7 (#330)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | 1335 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 2.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 4B: 15.8 (#286)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1239 | 1355 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#294)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | 1354 |
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.7 (#189)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | 1292 |
| LMArena German | 1281 | 1280 |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | 1257 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1356 |
| LMArena French | — | 1369 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1233 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1321 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 4B: 65.4 (#219)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | 1317 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 4B: 38.6 (#189)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1274 | 1312 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.2 (#234)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1270 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | 1327 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 4B better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning lists at $0.06 and $0.16.

### Is Gemma 3 4B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.6 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.