Mistral Large 4 (Medium) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Mistral Large 4 (Medium) by Mistral or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-30.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Large 4 (Medium) scores 17.6 points higher (23.1 vs 5.5) but costs 4.1× as much to run the benchmark ($936 vs $227; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 (Medium) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 23.1 | 5.5 | −76.2% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 76.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $936.36 | $227.02 | −75.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 75.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 9.10s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.70 / $2.10 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Large 4 (Medium): 76.2% less intelligence, 75.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Large 4 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 52.30 for $718.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.10 for $190.
Mistral Large 4 (Medium)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/mistral-large-4-medium/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4-medium/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill