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Head-to-head comparison

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o4 Mini

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA) and o4 Mini (OpenAI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 9 September 2026

As of 9 September 2026, o4 Mini holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#87 vs #89); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 22× cheaper per output token ($0.20/1M vs $4.40/1M); and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning offers the longer context window (262K vs 200K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning if…

  • API cost matters — $0.20/1M output tokens against $4.40/1M, about 22× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.08/1M against $1.10/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 200K.
  • you want provider choice — 2 listed API providers against 1.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was listed 11 August 2026, o4 Mini 16 April 2025.

Choose o4 Mini if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #87 against #89 (45.5 vs 44.0 points).
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 16.5% against 10.6%.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o4 Mini: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and o4 Mini
FieldNemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIAo4 MiniOpenAI
ModelCap Index position#89#87
Index score44.045.5
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.08$1.10
Output price / 1M tokens$0.20$4.40
Context window262K tokens200K tokens
Max output tokens131K100K
API providers listed21
Weight accessRestricted licenseAPI only
Input modalitiesTextImage, Text, File
First listed11 August 202616 April 2025
PublisherNVIDIAOpenAI

Evidence: 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o4 Mini

Public benchmark boards where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o4 Mini has a published result
BoardNemotron 3.5 Lightningo4 MiniLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—14331426–1440Only one result
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize Foundation—6.1%HighOnly one result
SWE-benchSWE-bench (Princeton / SWE-agent team)—45.0%Only one result
BFCL V4UC Berkeley (Gorilla)—53.2Function callingOnly one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis13.6intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecified—Only one result
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis24.3%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Nemotron 3.5 Lightning":reasoning=true—Only one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis—55.6%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="o4-mini (high)":reasoning=trueOnly one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis10.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Nemotron 3.5 Lightning":reasoning=true16.5%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="o4-mini (high)":reasoning=trueo4 Mini

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o4 Mini: common questions

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than o4 Mini?

o4 Mini ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 9 September 2026: #87 against #89. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cheaper than o4 Mini?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper on output tokens: $0.20/1M against $4.40/1M. Input tokens are $0.08/1M for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and $1.10/1M for o4 Mini. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $0.26 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning versus $4.40 for o4 Mini. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 94.1% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o4 Mini?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 200K.

Which is better for coding, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or o4 Mini?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and o4 Mini open-weight models?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Restricted license. o4 Mini: API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and o4 Mini?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and 1 for o4 Mini, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs o4 Mini comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 9 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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