MiniMax-M3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 16.3 points higher (29.2 vs 12.9) but costs 5.8× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $92.8; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 12.9 | −55.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 55.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $92.76 | −82.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 82.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 24.85s | 8.98s | −63.9% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 63.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs MiniMax-M3: 55.8% less intelligence, 82.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 63.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
MiniMax-M3Nemotron 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/minimax-m3/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill