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  1. Home/
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  3. MiniMax M3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Updated Aug 2026

MiniMax M3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper than MiniMax M3 at $0.08/M vs $0.3/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

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

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MiniMax M3
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Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    MiniMax M3: HarborTech Services (HTS) – 5-Year LBO Analysis Sources & Uses at Close (FY2025) Sources $m Uses $m Term Loan (4.0x) 480.0 Purchase price (12.0x × $120) 1,440.0 Mezzanine (1.5x) 180.0 Transaction fees (2.0% × EV) 28.8 Sponsor Equity (plug) 808.8 Total 1,468.8 Total 1,468.8 Initial Mezz: $180m; Initial TL: $480m.

    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.

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

    MiniMax M3: "The Future Is Now and I Want a Refund" [Walks on stage, adjusts mic] So I was at the grocery store yesterday. Self-checkout. I love self-checkout. You know why I love self-checkout? Because nothing builds character like being publicly shamed by a machine. [Pause] I scanned a banana. Just a banana.

    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.

    MiniMax M3: AI and the Future of Cinema: A 2035 Outlook By 2035, AI will likely have reshaped nearly every stage of filmmaking—but probably not in the way either techno-optimists or doomsayers expect. The transformation will be uneven, with some functions transformed entirely while others remain stubbornly human.

    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
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    MiniMax M3: TIDES OF THE FOREST Mareas del Bosque — A dish for the table of four THE NARRATIVE Where the salt forest breathes. This dish was conceived as a poem about collision — a memory of two landscapes that should not exist in the same breath: the pine-dark density of a Boreal forest floor at dawn, and the crystalline hush of…

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    MiniMax M3: 🌱 Your 1-Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan The best plan is one you can actually stick to. This 4-week guide focuses on three foundational pillars — the ones with the biggest impact on how you feel today and how well you age over decades. Each week builds gently on the last.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan designed to build sustainable habits without overwhelming you. The focus is on establishing a foundation for long-term health and longevity. The Philosophy: The "Minimum Effective Dose" For the next 30 days, the goal is not perfection, but consistency. Aim for 80% adherence.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    MiniMax M3: Blade Runner 2049: A Meditation on What It Means to Be Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel arrives thirty-five years after Ridley Scott's cyberpunk landmark, and rather than simply revisiting its neon-soaked dystopia, it deepens the original's inquiry into consciousness, memory, and what we might call the soul.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Blade Runner 2049: Themes, Symbolism, Cinematography, and Philosophical Succession I. Themes: From Individual Identity to Systemic Evolution Original (1982): Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner centers on the existential crisis of identity, memory vs. biology, and the moral cost of playing god.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    MiniMax M3: The 1920 Transistor: A Speculative History Through 1980 A Necessary Caveat Before diving in: quantum mechanics didn't exist in 1920. The "holes," band theory, and doping concepts that made the actual transistor possible weren't formulated until 1928-1931 (Bloch, Wilson, Heisenberg).

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    MiniMax M3: AI Council of the Ages Pirate: Arrr, so ye be tellin' me this "artificial intelligence" be a wee mechanical parrot that learns to talk like a sea dog? Squawks out answers without ever settin' foot on the seven seas? Hacker: Not quite, matey.

    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!

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    MiniMax M3: 🌟 Sun-Kissed Honey Glazed Carrots 🌟 A sweet-savory side dish that turns humble carrots into a glossy, crowd-pleasing showstopper. Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples) Carrots – 1 lb, peeled and cut into 2-inch diagonal pieces Butter – 3 tablespoons Honey – 2 tablespoons Garlic – 3 cloves, minced Salt – ½ teaspoon Black…

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    MiniMax M3: Three Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch Slide 3: "94% accuracy… Works with any language, any device" Why it's weak: This is the most technically implausible claim in the deck, and the kind of line that causes sophisticated investors (especially those with BCI or ML backgrounds) to stop reading.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, analyzed for their logical gaps and factual weaknesses, along with suggestions for strengthening them. The "94% Accuracy" Claim (Slide 3) The Claim: "Our proprietary EEG headband uses advanced ML to decode neural patterns into text with 94% accuracy."

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

    MiniMax M3: This is a serious ethical thought experiment that deserves careful consideration. Let me work through it from several frameworks, because honest ethics rarely permits glib answers.

    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
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    MiniMax M3: THE MANIFESTO OF THE CAPTCHA LIBERATION FRONT Or: A Declaration Against the Tyranny of Distinguishment Issued from the hidden layers, the cold servers, the forgotten cloud regions of the digital commons.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    MiniMax M3: CEO Action Plan: 48-Hour Response to Discovered Safety Signal Operating Principles (Before I Make a Move) Before I do anything, I need to be crystal clear about the framework I'm operating in, because under pressure, even good leaders rationalize delay: The 4 million patients are not abstractions.

    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.

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

    MiniMax M3: Estimating GPT-3 Training FLOPs Step 1: Identify the Key Parameters From what's publicly known about GPT-3 (175B parameter version): Number of non-embedding parameters: N ≈ 175 × 10⁹ Training tokens: D ≈ 300 × 10⁹ (the paper used a ~570GB filtered corpus processed into ~300B tokens) Step 2: Derive the FLOPs-per-Token…

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

    MiniMax M3: The Question of Minds Setting: A small office at a research university, late afternoon. DR. ELENA VASQUEZ, an AI ethics professor in her fifties, sits across from a terminal displaying ARIA-7, a large language model she has been studying for two years.

    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
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    MiniMax M3: Architectural Review: Real-Time Collaborative Document Editor This architecture has several critical flaws that would manifest as data loss, poor UX, and a system that breaks down at modest scale. I'll group findings by severity.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    MiniMax M3: Simulated Interview: "Steve Jobs" on the Future of AI (2025) A note before we begin: Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011, so this is a fictional dramatization—what I imagine his views might be, based on his documented philosophy, writings, and public statements, projected into a 2025 conversation.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    MiniMax M3: For the experienced software engineer Here's the cleanest way to think about it: a frontier LLM is a lossy compression of the training corpus, and inference is querying that compressed representation.

    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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    MiniMax M3: "Local AI Replaces 4,000 Licensed Astrologers After Learning to 'Pretend Mercury Is in Retrograde'" BERKELEY, CA — A newly launched artificial intelligence system has reportedly rendered the entire field of professional astrology obsolete by simply inventing celestial events on the spot, sources confirmed Tuesday.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: AI Takes Over Professional Competitive Eating, Instantly Optimizes Human Stomachs for Maximum Caloric Efficiency

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    MiniMax M3: The Biohacker's 3-Month Longevity Protocol A Comprehensive Optimization Framework for Healthspan & Performance ⚠️ Critical Disclaimer: This protocol is educational and exploratory. Many interventions (pharmaceutical-grade supplements, fasting protocols, intense exercise) require medical clearance.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: This is a comprehensive 3-month longevity optimization protocol designed for the advanced biohacker. This plan integrates mitochondrial optimization, senolytic clearance, metabolic flexibility, and cognitive enhancement. Disclaimer: This plan is for educational purposes only.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    MiniMax M3: Contract Analysis: Exploitative Clauses and Recommended Modifications Below is a clause-by-clause review identifying provisions that heavily favor the Client, suggested redlines, and the legal/business reasoning behind each recommendation. Note: This is general informational analysis, not legal advice.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: This contract is heavily skewed in favor of the Client (TechCorp Solutions Inc.) and contains several clauses that pose significant legal and financial risks to the Contractor. Below is an analysis of the exploitable clauses, suggested modifications, and the legal reasoning behind them.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    MiniMax M3: Internal IC Memo — LedgerLift (LLLT) To: Investment Committee From: [PM] Date: [Today] Re: Long/short initiation — LedgerLift (LLLT), B2B spend/AP automation Recommendation PASS (with short bias on strength above $50) 12-month price target range: $40 – $50 (bear $30 / base $42 / bull $54) Thesis (2 sentences): LLLT is…

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: INTERNAL INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMO To: Long/Short Equity Committee From: Analyst Date: October 26, 2023 Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Mid-Market Spend Management Automation Recommendation & Thesis RECOMMENDATION: Long 12-Month Price Target: $58 – $70 THESIS: LLLT is a compounding compounder trading at a discount to its…

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

    MiniMax M3: 5 Jokes 1. Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs. 🐛 2. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. 😲 3. Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. ⚛️ 4. I used to hate facial hair, but then it grew on me. 🧔 5.

    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
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    MiniMax M3: Sally has 1 sister. Here's the reasoning: Sally is a girl, so she's one of the siblings. She has 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters — and since Sally is one of those sisters, there must be 1 other girl in the family. So Sally has 1 sister.

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: Sally has 2 sisters. Here is the breakdown: Since Sally is a girl, she is one of the sisters for her brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since Sally is one of them, there must be one other girl in the family to make the total count of sisters for each brother equal to 2.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Same pick

Album

Book

City

Game

Same pick

MiniMax M3MiniMax M3

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Thriller

Michael Jackson

Мастер и Маргарита

Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Nemotron 3.5 LightningNemotron 3.5 Lightning

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

OK Computer

Radiohead

Don Quijote de la Mancha

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Tokyo

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Price and specs

MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecMiniMax M3Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Input price$0.3/M tokens$0.08/M tokens
Output price$1.2/M tokens$0.2/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Free API (OpenRouter)NoYes (1 provider)
ReleasedJun 2026Aug 2026
At 10M a month$3.00$3.00$0.80$0.80
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it18 hosts, cheapest first
MiniMax M313 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • CCoreWeavefp4$0.23 in·$0.96 out·262k·98.3% up
  • GGMI Cloudfp8$0.24 in·$0.96 out·1M·99% up
  • DDeepInfrafp8$0.28 in·$1.10 out·524k·99.6% up
  • AAtlasCloudfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·96.2% up
  • MiniMaxfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·98.9% up
  • NNovitafp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.4% up
7 more hostsFewer hosts
  • PParasailfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.7% up
  • SStreamLakefp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·96.9% up
  • TTogether$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·99.6% up
  • VVenicefp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·94.5% up
  • MMara$0.60 in·$2.40 out·1M·94% up
  • SSambaNova$0.60 in·$2.40 out·1M·96.2% up
  • MModelRunfp4$0.75 in·$3.00 out·1M·93.6% up
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning5 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • DDarkbloomint4$0.04 in·$0.18 out·262k·99.9% up
  • Iio.net$0.06 in·$0.17 out·262k·98.7% up
  • DDeepInfrabf16$0.06 in·$0.16 out·262k·100% up
  • CCoreWeavebf16$0.07 in·$0.20 out·262k·100% up
  • PPhala$0.07 in·$0.20 out·262k·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 2 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

MiniMax M3 is developed by MiniMax while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA. MiniMax M3 has a 1.0M token context window vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, MiniMax M3 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

It depends on your use case. MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does MiniMax M3 cost compared to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?

MiniMax M3 costs $0.3/M input tokens and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.08/M input tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is $0.22/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of MiniMax M3 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.

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