Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 26.9 points higher (39.8 vs 12.9) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $92.8; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 12.9 | −67.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 67.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $92.76 | −91.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 91.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 9.12s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 67.6% less intelligence, 91.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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