Granite 4.2 3B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 3B by IBM or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores 3.8 points higher (12.9 vs 9.1) but costs 6.2× as much to run the benchmark ($92.8 vs $14.9; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 3B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.1 | 12.9 | +41.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 41.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.91 | $92.76 | +522.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 6.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.30s | 9.16s | −74.1% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 74.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.03 / $0.12 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Granite 4.2 3B: 41.8% more intelligence, 522.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 74.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
Granite 4.2 3BNemotron 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/granite-4-2-3b/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill