# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Sonar

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 26.8 to 21.1.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 38.5 |
| Rank | 155 | 187 |
| Context | 262K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.20 | $1 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
- Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1375 | — |

## Reasoning

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
- Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1337 | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
- Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1359 | — |

## Knowledge

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1356 | — |

## Multilingual

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1295 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1359 | — |
| LMArena French | 1366 | — |
| LMArena German | 1282 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1206 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1238 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1253 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1345 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
- Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1318 | — |

## Long Context

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1314 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1327 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1328 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Sonar?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Sonar?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Sonar lists at $1 and $1.

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

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 128K.

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

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.