GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) 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 Terra (Xhigh) scores 25.1 points higher (38.0 vs 12.9) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($1187 vs $99.0; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.0 | 12.9 | −66.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 66.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,186.77 | $99.03 | −91.7% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 91.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.63s | 8.23s | −75.5% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 75.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh): 66.1% less intelligence, 91.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 75.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) 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, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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