GPT-5.6 Luna (High) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Luna (High) by OpenAI or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Luna (High) scores 19.2 points higher (32.1 vs 12.9) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($108 vs $99.0; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Luna (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna (High) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 32.1 | 12.9 | −59.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 59.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $108.15 | $99.03 | −8.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 8.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.30s | 8.76s | −46.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 46.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $1.20 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-5.6 Luna (High): 59.8% less intelligence, 8.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Luna (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
GPT-5.6 Luna (High)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-high/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-high/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill