Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 42.2 points higher (55.1 vs 12.9) but costs 34× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $92.8; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 12.9 | −76.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 76.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $92.76 | −97.0% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 97.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.64s | 9.16s | −78.5% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 78.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 76.6% less intelligence, 97.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 78.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
Kimi K3.1 ProNemotron 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/kimi-k3-1-pro/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill