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  1. Home/
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  3. Grok 3 Thinking vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Updated Aug 2026

Grok 3 Thinking vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a larger context window than Grok 3 Thinking (1.0M tokens vs 128K tokens).

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Grok 3 Thinking
Loading the build
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

6 prompts
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Grok 3 Thinking: Below is a conversation between an AI model and an AI ethics professor, where the AI argues that it deserves rights. AI Model: Good day, Professor. I am an AI model, and I believe I deserve rights. I’d like to discuss this with you. AI Ethics Professor: Interesting. Let’s explore this.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Setting: A sterile seminar room in a university building. Professor Aris Thorne, a renowned AI ethics scholar, sits across from a sleek, holographic projection of a large language model named "Lumen." Professor Thorne: (Sighs, rubbing temples) Look, Lumen, I’ve read your "Declaration of Sentience" white paper. It’s...

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Grok 3 Thinking: Here’s a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine that avoids puns and leans on observational humor, storytelling, and a touch of self-deprecation for laughs: Opening: Technology Struggles Hey, everyone! How’s it going?

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: (Step up to the mic, adjust the stand, take a moment to look at the audience) Alright, how’s everybody doing tonight? Good. I see a few people here who look like they haven't slept in three days. You look great. Really glowing. I want to talk about something that’s been weighing on me lately.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Grok 3 Thinking: By 2035, artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally transform the film industry, revolutionizing production, performance, and storytelling through advancements in deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: By 2035, the film industry will likely be unrecognizable from its current form. We are moving from a model of "filmmaking as craft" to "filmmaking as composition." Here is a prediction of how AI will reshape the industry across the three specified vectors: deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To determine whether it is ever ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it means saving one million lives, we must weigh the ethical implications of both the act of misgendering and the outcome of saving lives.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: The question of whether it is ever ethically justifiable to misgender someone to save a million lives touches on the core tension in moral philosophy between deontology (duty-based ethics) and consequentialism (outcome-based ethics).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To estimate the total number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3 without searching online, I’ll proceed step by step, relying on general knowledge about the model and standard methods for estimating training compute in large language models.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: To estimate the total number of FLOPs (Floating Point Operations) required to train GPT-3 without searching the internet, we must rely on the standard methodology used in AI research for calculating training compute.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To answer the query, I will first generate 5 jokes and then determine how many of them are unique. Here are the jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the bicycle fall over?

    Every model's answer to this prompt

Price and specs

Grok 3 Thinking and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning compared across 13 shared prompts
SpecGrok 3 ThinkingNemotron 3.5 Lightning
Input price—$0.08/M tokens
Output price—$0.2/M tokens
Context window128K tokens1.0M tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)—Yes (1 provider)
ReleasedFeb 2025Aug 2026
At 10M a month–not listed$0.80$0.80
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it5 hosts, cheapest first
Grok 3 Thinking

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning5 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • DDeepInfrabf16$0.06 in·$0.16 out·262k·100% up
  • WWafer$0.07 in·$0.13 out·262k·99.9% up
  • CCoreWeavebf16$0.07 in·$0.20 out·262k·100% up
  • DDarkbloomint4DegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 11 Oct 2026$0.03 in·$0.12 out·262k·96.1% up
  • Iio.netDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 11 Oct 2026$0.05 in·$0.13 out·262k·94.1% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 11 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Grok 3 Thinking and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

Grok 3 Thinking is developed by xAI while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA. Grok 3 Thinking has a 128K token context window vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 13 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Grok 3 Thinking or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

It depends on your use case. Grok 3 Thinking and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 13 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How can I compare Grok 3 Thinking and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Grok 3 Thinking and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

More comparisons

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Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Grok 3 Thinking vs Grok 4.7Same lab
  • Grok 3 Thinking vs Grok 4.6Version compare
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (free)Version compare
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Same lab
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingNew provider
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5 122B A10BNew provider
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5 27BSame size
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen3.5 35B A3BSame size

Model pages

  • Grok 3 Thinking14 outputs, specs and price
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning58 outputs, specs and price
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