GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: GPT-6.1 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 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) scores 35.2 points higher (48.1 vs 12.9) but costs 9.2× as much to run the benchmark ($909 vs $99.0; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 48.1 | 12.9 | −73.2% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 73.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $909.01 | $99.03 | −89.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 89.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 83.46s | 8.23s | −90.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 90.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $5.00 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-6.1 Terra (Max): 73.2% less intelligence, 89.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- 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-6.1 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-6-1-terra/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-terra/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill