GLM-5.3-Flash vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3-Flash by Z AI 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
GLM-5.3-Flash scores 28.9 points higher (41.8 vs 12.9) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($306 vs $92.8; both mid-range class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3-Flash when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3-Flash | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 12.9 | −69.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 69.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $305.52 | $92.76 | −69.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 69.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 38.43s | 8.98s | −76.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 76.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.50 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GLM-5.3-Flash: 69.1% less intelligence, 69.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 76.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
GLM-5.3-FlashNemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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