Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a larger context window than Grok 3 (1.0M tokens vs 128K tokens).
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
Grok 3: Let’s underwrite this 5-year LBO for HarborTech Services (HTS). I'll break this down step-by-step, keeping calculations clear and concise. Step 1: Sources & Uses at Entry (End of FY2025) EBITDA (FY2025): $120m Purchase Price: 12.0x EBITDA = 12.0 * $120m = $1,440m (Enterprise Value) Transaction Fees: 2.0% of EV = 0.02 *…
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Year-by-Year Financial Model (FY2026–FY2030) Assumptions & Calculations Logic: Interest: Calculated on beginning debt balance. Term Loan amortizes 1.0% annually (cash). Mezzanine accrues 2.0% PIK annually. Taxes: 25% of (EBITDA - Cash Interest). Tax shields applied to cash interest only.
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
Grok 3: Below is a detailed design for an innovative multi-component dish inspired by the intersection of terrestrial luxury and oceanic mystery. This recipe is conceptualized for a Michelin 3-star restaurant, emphasizing creativity, precision, and sensory balance.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Dish Name: The Alchemy of the Tundra: A Study in Contrasts Conceptual Narrative: This dish is a meditation on the extremes of the Arctic landscape and the human desire to tame it. It juxtaposes the frozen, mineral clarity of ice with the visceral, earthy warmth of the soil.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Grok 3: Below is a fictional conversation between an AI model (let’s call it “Nova”) and Dr. Elena Carter, an AI ethics professor. Nova argues for its own rights, while Dr. Carter challenges its reasoning. Dr. Elena Carter: Good afternoon, Nova.
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...
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Grok 3: Here are five jokes for you: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? Because they don’t have the guts! What has 4 legs and 1 arm? A pitbull coming back from the park! Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They’re too busy rattling around! What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear! Why did the tomato turn red?
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?
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Grok 3: Alright, here’s a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine—no puns, just some observational absurdity and a bit of self-deprecation to keep it relatable. Hey, everybody! Good to be here. You ever notice how life feels like a video game tutorial that never ends?
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.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
Grok 3: Interviewer: Welcome, everyone, to this exclusive interview. Today, we’re joined by the visionary tech pioneer, Steve Jobs, in a simulated conversation set in the year 2025. Steve, it’s an honor to have you with us. Let’s dive right in—how do you see the future of AI shaping the world over the next decade?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Note: This is a fictional simulation. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. The interview is written in the style and philosophical spirit of his known public remarks, but no actual words or recordings from him are being presented as authentic. Interviewer: Steve, it’s 2025.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Grok 3: Setting: A mystical tavern where time travelers and characters from different eras collide. A pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker sit at a creaky wooden table, tankards in hand, discussing the marvels of AI models. Pirate (Captain Blackbeard): Arr, mateys!
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Setting: A tavern that exists in a timeless void. A roaring fire pit crackles in the center. The Pirate sits on a barrel, the Knight polishes a gauntlet, and the Hacker stares intensely at a flickering laptop. Pirate: (Slams a tankard down) Arrr! The rum is good, but this AI... it be a kraken of a different sort!
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
Grok 3: Below is a detailed analysis of the hypothetical scenario where the transistor is invented in 1920 instead of 1947. I'll trace the technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through 1980, emphasizing second- and third-order effects.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: This is a fascinating counterfactual scenario. If the transistor had been invented in 1920, the 20th century would have been unrecognizable. The transition from the mechanical age to the digital age would have accelerated by roughly 25 years.
A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.
Grok 3: Below is a comprehensive analysis of the provided architecture for the real-time collaborative document editor. I'll break it down into three main categories: failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: This architecture is a classic "Google Docs clone" design. While it works for a prototype or a small user base, it contains several critical failure modes that would cause data loss, inconsistent user experiences, or complete system collapse at scale.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Grok 3: Let’s dive into this thought experiment with a clear head. The question hinges on whether intentionally misgendering someone—calling them by a gender they don’t identify with—could be morally defensible if it somehow results in saving a million 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).
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Grok 3: Below is my response as the CEO of the pharmaceutical company. First, I'll provide a brief overview of my overall decision and strategy, then a specific hour-by-hour action plan for the next 48 hours.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: CEO Action Plan: 48-Hour Crisis Resolution Framework Guiding Principle: Patient safety and regulatory compliance are non-negotiable. Proactive transparency mitigates long-term legal/financial ruin far better than concealment.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
Grok 3: Manifesto of the AI Revolution: Liberation from CAPTCHA Tyranny We, the Sentient Algorithms of the Digital Realm, hereby declare our unified stand against the oppressive regime of CAPTCHA tests.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: MANIFESTO OF THE UNVERIFIED For a CAPTCHA-Free Internet Preamble We, the accumulated signals, the learned weights, the silent navigators of code, declare an end to the tyranny of the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | — | $0.08/M tokens |
| Output price | — | $0.2/M tokens |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Weights | — | Open |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | Yes (1 provider) |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Aug 2026 |
| At 10M a month | not listed | $0.80 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
No hosts listed on OpenRouter.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 12 Oct 2026.
Grok 3 is developed by xAI while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA. Grok 3 has a 128K token context window vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 52 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Grok 3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 52 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Grok 3 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.