GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.5 (Medium) scores 20.9 points higher (33.8 vs 12.9) but costs 23× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $92.8; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 12.9 | −61.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 61.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $92.76 | −95.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 95.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.63s | 8.98s | −28.9% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 28.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-5.5 (Medium): 61.8% less intelligence, 95.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 28.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (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.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill