Mistral Small 3.1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores 5.8 points higher (12.9 vs 7.1) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($92.8 vs $27.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.1 | 12.9 | +81.7% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 81.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.82 | $92.76 | +233.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 3.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.75s | 8.98s | −23.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 23.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.08 / $0.14 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Small 3.1: 81.7% more intelligence, 233.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 23.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 3.1 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.
Mistral Small 3.1Nemotron 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-small-3-1/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-small-3-1/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill