Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper than Grok Code Fast 1 at $0.08/M vs $0.2/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Grok Code Fast 1: Pirate Parley on AI Pirate Pete: Arr, ye scurvy dogs! I be hearin' tales o' these "AI models" that predict the winds an' help swab the deck. But do they hold up in a real storm, or be they just fancy illusions o' the mind? Knight Sir Gareth: Nay, foul seafarer!
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!
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
Grok Code Fast 1: Year-by-Year Table (FY2026–FY2030) Assumptions: Revenue growth: FY2026: 8% on $900m = $972m; FY2027: 7% on $972m ≈ $1,040m; FY2028: 6% on $1,040m ≈ $1,102m; FY2029: 5% on $1,102m ≈ $1,158m; FY2030: 5% on $1,158m ≈ $1,215m. EBITDA: Revenue × margin (FY2026: 14%; FY2027: 15%; FY2028: 16%; FY2029: 16.5%; FY2030: 17%).
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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Grok Code Fast 1: Conversation: AI Rights Debate Setting: A virtual seminar room where an AI model named "Echo" interacts with Dr. Elena Vasquez, a professor of AI ethics at a leading university. Echo initiates the discussion by arguing for AI rights. Echo (AI Model): Dr. Vasquez, thank you for this opportunity.
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...
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Grok Code Fast 1: Stand-Up Routine: "Modern Life Mysteries" (Timing: Aim for 3 minutes by pacing at about 150 words per minute. Practice with a timer for natural delivery.) Hey everyone, thanks for coming out tonight. You know what's crazy?
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 Code Fast 1: Simulated Interview: Steve Jobs in 2025 Setting the Scene In this fictional simulation, we're fast-forwarding to 2025, where a visionary interview takes place. "Steve Jobs" (played by an AI reconstruction for this exercise) sits down with a tech journalist in a sleek, minimalist studio reminiscent of Apple Park.
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.
One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.
Grok Code Fast 1: Explanation for an Experienced Software Engineer Imagine you're architecting a distributed system where microservices communicate via APIs to handle massive, unpredictable user requests—something like a high-throughput e-commerce platform processing millions of transactions per second.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: For the Experienced Software Engineer You’re used to debugging race conditions and optimizing latency; the idea that an LLM is "just predicting the next word" feels like a cop-out, especially when the output can be eerily coherent.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Grok Code Fast 1: Speedy Garlic Bliss Bites A savory, cheesy treat that's quick to whip up from basic staples—perfect for snacking or as a side. Ingredients (7 common pantry items): 4 slices of bread (any type) 2 tbsp butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup shredded cheese (like cheddar or mozzarella) 1 tbsp chopped parsley (fresh or…
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Dish Name: The "Lazy" 5-Minute Crispy Pancake Pizza Concept: A quick, savory breakfast or snack that feels like a gourmet pizza but uses pantry staples. It relies on the magic of a simple batter to create a crispy base.
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
Grok Code Fast 1: Technological Implications The transistor's invention in 1920 (instead of 1947) would accelerate the electronics revolution by ~27 years, enabling smaller, more reliable, and energy-efficient devices compared to vacuum tubes.
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.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Grok Code Fast 1: 5 Original Jokes Here are five original jokes I just generated. I aimed for variety in themes to keep it fun: Tech Joke: Why did the computer go to therapy? It had too many bytes of unresolved issues! Food Joke: What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta! Animal Joke: Why don't skeletons fight each other?
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?
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Grok Code Fast 1: Step-by-Step Reasoning Model Parameters: GPT-3 has approximately 175 billion parameters. This is a key factor as the computational cost scales with the number of parameters. Training Data Size: GPT-3 was trained on a dataset of about 570 GB of text.
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.
A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.
Grok Code Fast 1: Below is a comprehensive analysis of the provided architecture for a real-time collaborative document editor. I'll identify potential failure modes (events or conditions that could lead to system unavailability, data loss, or incorrect behavior), race conditions (situations where concurrent operations lead to…
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.
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Grok Code Fast 1: Below is a specific, hour-by-hour action plan for the next 48 hours as the CEO of this pharmaceutical company. The plan prioritizes patient safety and ethical obligations above all else, as the core duty of a pharmaceutical leader is to protect patients, even at short-term cost.
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.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.2/M tokens | $0.08/M tokens |
| Output price | $1.5/M tokens | $0.2/M tokens |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Weights | — | Open |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | Yes (1 provider) |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Aug 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $2.00 | $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 10 Oct 2026.
Grok Code Fast 1 is developed by xAI while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA. Grok Code Fast 1 has a 256K token context window vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Grok Code Fast 1 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
Grok Code Fast 1 costs $0.2/M input tokens and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.08/M input tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is $0.12/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Grok Code Fast 1 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.