Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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
Solar Mini 4 scores 11.2 points higher (24.1 vs 12.9) but costs 5.4× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $92.8; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.9 | 24.1 | +86.8% Solar Mini 4 is 86.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $92.76 | $502.02 | +441.2% Solar Mini 4 is 5.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.09s | 27.46s | +202.1% Solar Mini 4 is 202.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.20 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 86.8% more intelligence, 441.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 202.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Nemotron 3.5 LightningSolar Mini 4Today'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/nemotron-3-5-lightning/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill