GPT-5 mini (High) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5 mini (High) scores 3.9 points higher (16.8 vs 12.9) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($189 vs $92.8; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5 mini (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 12.9 | −23.2% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 23.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $92.76 | −50.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 50.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 60.90s | 8.98s | −85.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 85.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-5 mini (High): 23.2% less intelligence, 50.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 85.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- 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 mini (High)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-mini/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill