# Mistral vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral 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 16.3.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 29.4 | 39.3 |
| Rank | 297 | 156 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.16 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Mistral: 33.2 (#249)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1162 | 1370 |

## Reasoning

- Mistral: 21.3 (#199)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1149 | 1335 |

## Math

- Mistral: 20.5 (#275)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1180 | 1355 |
| Omni-MATH | 7.2% | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral: 16.3 (#283)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1125 | 1354 |
| MMLU-Pro | 27.7% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.3% | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral: 33.0 (#249)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1129 | 1292 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1109 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1179 | 1369 |
| LMArena German | 1155 | 1280 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1012 | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | 1032 | 1233 |
| LMArena Russian | 1168 | 1257 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1143 | 1321 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral: 52.9 (#283)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1152 | 1317 |
| IFEval | 56.8% | — |

## Long Context

- Mistral: 35.0 (#240)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1154 | 1312 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral: 37.2 (#255)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)

| Benchmark | Mistral | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1165 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1158 | 1254 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1147 | 1327 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
| WildBench | 66% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Mistral or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.6 versus 33.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral has 22 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.