# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen Max

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen Max in 0 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 37.5 to 22.3.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 155 | 230 |
| Context | 262K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $0.20 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1375 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |

## Reasoning

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1337 | 1269 |

## Math

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1275 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 16.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1356 | 1248 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |

## Multilingual

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1295 | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1359 | 1254 |
| LMArena French | 1366 | 1330 |
| LMArena German | 1282 | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1206 | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | 1238 | 1142 |
| LMArena Russian | 1253 | 1274 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1345 | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1318 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1314 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1327 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1328 | 1277 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen Max?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen Max?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen Max better for coding?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen Max share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.