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Head-to-head comparison

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5-9B

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA) and Qwen3.5-9B (Qwen) 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 3 September 2026

As of 3 September 2026, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#84 vs #87); Qwen3.5-9B is 1.3× cheaper per output token ($0.15/1M vs $0.20/1M); and Qwen3.5-9B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #84 against #87 (31.2 vs 29.0 points).
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.08/1M against $0.10/1M.
  • AA Intelligence Index is your yardstick — 23.6 against 21.8.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was listed 11 August 2026, Qwen3.5-9B 10 March 2026.

Choose Qwen3.5-9B if…

  • API cost matters — $0.15/1M output tokens against $0.20/1M, about 1.3× cheaper.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3.5-9B ships open weights while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is restricted license.
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 2.
  • AA Terminal-Bench 2.1 is your yardstick — 29.2% against 24.3%.
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 14.9% against 10.6%.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5-9B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3.5-9B
FieldNemotron 3.5 LightningNVIDIAQwen3.5-9BQwen
ModelCap Index position#84#87
Index score31.229.0
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.08$0.10
Output price / 1M tokens$0.20$0.15
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens131K236K
API providers listed25
Weight accessRestricted licenseOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText, Image, Video
First listed11 August 202610 March 2026
PublisherNVIDIAQwen

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

Benchmark scores: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5-9B

Public benchmark boards where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.5-9B has a published result
BoardNemotron 3.5 LightningQwen3.5-9BLeads
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis23.6intelligence-index21.8intelligence-indexNemotron 3.5 Lightning
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis24.3%terminal-bench-2.129.2%terminal-bench-2.1Qwen3.5-9B
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis—86.8%tau2-bench-telecomOnly one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis10.6%humanitys-last-exam14.9%humanitys-last-examQwen3.5-9B

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 Qwen3.5-9B: common questions

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen3.5-9B?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 3 September 2026: #84 against #87. 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.

Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cheaper than Qwen3.5-9B?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.15/1M against $0.20/1M. Input tokens are $0.08/1M for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and $0.10/1M for Qwen3.5-9B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.5-9B?

Both publish a 262K-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen3.5-9B?

AA Terminal-Bench 2.1: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 24.3%, Qwen3.5-9B 29.2% — Qwen3.5-9B leads.

Are Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen3.5-9B open-weight models?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Restricted license. Qwen3.5-9B: Open weights. 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 Qwen3.5-9B?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and 5 for Qwen3.5-9B, 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 Qwen3.5-9B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 3 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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