Kimi K2.7 Code vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.7 Code by Kimi or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K2.7 Code scores 12.7 points higher (26.3 vs 13.6) but costs 9.4× as much to run the benchmark ($993 vs $105; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.7 Code when you need intelligence above 13.6, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 13.6 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.7 Code | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.3 | 13.6 | −48.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 48.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $992.88 | $105.48 | −89.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 89.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 41.22s | 9.23s | −77.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 77.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Kimi K2.7 Code: 48.3% less intelligence, 89.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K2.7 Code is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.5 scores 22.30 for $42.6.
Kimi K2.7 CodeNemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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