GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 29.2 points higher (42.1 vs 12.9) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $92.8; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 12.9 | −69.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 69.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $92.76 | −96.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 96.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 113.99s | 8.72s | −92.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 92.4% 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 (Max): 69.4% less intelligence, 96.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- 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-5.6 Terra (Max)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-5-6-terra/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill