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  1. Home/
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  3. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)
Updated Sep 2026

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)

Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) is cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning at $0/M vs $0.08/M input tokens.

Written rounds

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): Dish: “Tidewater Orchard” Langoustine · Mirabelle Plum · Juniper · Kombu · Rye A tasting-menu course built around an unusual pairing: sweet cold-water langoustine with mirabelle plum, bridged by kombu umami, juniper resin, green tomato acidity, and toasted rye bitterness.

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): Pantry Moon Bars A sweet, chewy peanut butter–chocolate oat treat made with only 7 pantry staples. Ingredients Rolled oats Creamy peanut butter Honey Chocolate chips Vanilla extract Ground cinnamon Salt Instructions Heat oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): Below is a general contract-risk review, not legal advice. Enforceability depends heavily on jurisdiction, contractor classification, and the exact facts. Also, even if a clause might be unenforceable, relying on that is risky because litigation/arbitration is expensive.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): Executive summary The biggest correctness risks are: Client-clock last-write-wins is unsafe: clock skew, malicious clients, ties, and out-of-order delivery can silently lose edits.

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): Starting assumption Assume the 1920 “transistor” is a usable but crude solid-state amplifier/switch: reproducible enough for telecom and radio, but noisy, low-power, temperature-sensitive, and expensive at first.

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

    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."

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): The 3 weakest claims are the ones most likely to be challenged in diligence: Weakest claim Why it’s weak How to strengthen it 1. “94% accuracy… works with any language, any device.” This is the biggest scientific and product credibility risk.

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): 1-Month Beginner Health & Longevity Plan Goal: Build simple habits you can keep—not perfection. Focus on 3 areas: diet, exercise, and sleep/stress. Diet: Eat for steady energy Week 1: Add before you subtract Add 1 fruit or vegetable to 2 meals per day. Drink a glass of water when you wake up and before meals.

    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.

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): As CEO, I would not wait six months and I would not let the board delay disclosure while patients remain exposed to an unreported serious risk. I would treat this as a patient-safety, regulatory, legal, and trust crisis—not merely a financial-risk issue. My guiding decisions would be: Patient safety comes first.

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

    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.

    Nex-N2.5-Pro (free): To the experienced software engineer Think of an LLM as a giant probabilistic text service trained by repeatedly asking: “Given this sequence of tokens so far, what is the next token?”

    Every model's answer to this prompt

Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

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

Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)

Blade Runner 2049

2017

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Мастер и Маргарита

Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков

Tokyo

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Adventure, Action

Price and specs

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) compared across 14 shared prompts
SpecNemotron 3.5 LightningNex-N2.5-Pro (free)
Input price$0.08/M tokensFree
Output price$0.2/M tokensFree
Context window1.0M tokens262K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)Yes (1 provider)No
ReleasedAug 2026Sep 2026
At 10M a month$0.80$0.80$0$0
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it6 hosts, cheapest first
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning6 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • DDarkbloomint4$0.03 in·$0.12 out·262k·99% up
  • WWafer$0.04 in·$0.13 out·262k·100% 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·98.9% up
  • Iio.netDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 10 Oct 2026$0.05 in·$0.13 out·262k·98.3% up
Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA while Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) is developed by Nex AGI. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a 1.0M token context window vs Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)'s 262K. You can compare their actual outputs across 14 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)?

It depends on your use case. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 14 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning cost compared to Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.08/M input tokens and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) costs $0/M input tokens. Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) is $0.08/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 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) 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

Against the newest arrivals

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  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) vs Mistral Large 4Landed Oct 2026
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs GPT-6.1 SolLanded Sep 2026
  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5Landed Sep 2026
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Solar Mini 4Landed Sep 2026
  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) vs Qwen3.8 Max PrimeLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (free)Version compare
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Same lab
  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) vs Nex-N2.5-Mini (free)Same lab
  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free) vs Ox AlphaSame size
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Gemini 2.5 Pro ExperimentalNew provider
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Gemini 2.5 Pro (I/O Edition)New provider
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05New provider
  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNew provider

Model pages

  • Nemotron 3.5 Lightning58 outputs, specs and price
  • Nex-N2.5-Pro (free)14 outputs, specs and price
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