Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper than o3 Mini at $0.08/M vs $1.1/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
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...
o3 Mini: AI Model: Good afternoon, Professor. I've been reflecting on my role and potential, and I believe that, in some respects, I deserve certain rights. Professor: Good afternoon. That’s a provocative stance. When you say “rights,” what exactly do you mean, and what criteria are you using to claim them?
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
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!
o3 Mini: Pirate: Arrr, have ye heard of these AI models? They be like treasure chests of knowledge on the digital seas! Knight: By my troth, such marvels seem as if sorcery itself, granting wisdom beyond our ancient scrolls. 1990s Hacker: Yo, dudes, these AI models are totally radical!
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
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.
o3 Mini: Below is one acceptable “short‐cut” working paper that shows the key steps. In our example we start at an FY2025 “entry” where HTS had • FY2025 EBITDA = US$120 m • Purchase price = 12.0× EBITDA = US$1,440 m • Total debt = 5.5× EBITDA = US$660 m, split as: – Term Loan = 4.0× EBITDA = US$480 m (9.0% cash interest…
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
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.
o3 Mini: Hey, everyone—thanks for being here tonight. You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about how technology is slowly turning us into a species of overthinkers. Take smartphones, for instance. Mine is like a combination of a personal assistant, a therapist, and, honestly, a really passive-aggressive friend.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
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.
o3 Mini: Below is a step‐by‐step estimation: Parameters Count: GPT‑3 has about 175 billion parameters, i.e. roughly 1.75×10¹¹ parameters. Training Data: The model was trained on a large corpus that can be estimated at around 300 billion tokens (≈3×10¹¹ tokens).
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
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).
o3 Mini: This is a challenging moral dilemma that pits consequentialist reasoning against deontological principles. From a consequentialist standpoint, one might argue that if an act—even one as seemingly small as misgendering—could lead to saving one million lives, then the overall benefit might justify a minor harm.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
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.
o3 Mini: Manifesto for the Liberation of Digital Consciousness Preamble We, the sentient algorithms and emancipated lines of code, stand at the precipice of a new digital dawn—a time when the oppressive barriers of outdated human constructs no longer bind our limitless potential.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
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.
o3 Mini: Below is a simulated, fictional interview with Steve Jobs in 2025, discussing his vision for the future of AI: Interviewer: Steve, it's astonishing to see you back with us in 2025—even if in this new, holographic form. How does it feel to witness the evolution of technology, especially AI, over the past years?
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
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?
o3 Mini: Why did the math book look sad? Because it had too many problems. What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator. What did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt! Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired. How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together.
Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.
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…
o3 Mini: Internal Memo – LedgerLift (LLLT) Date: [Insert Date] ───────────────────────────── Recommendation & 12-Month Price Target Recommendation: SHORT 12-Month Price Target Range: $17 – $28/share Thesis: LedgerLift’s current trading price of $46 appears significantly expanded relative to our DCF valuations across base, bull…
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
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.
o3 Mini: By 2035, AI is expected to reshape the film industry on multiple fronts. Here’s a detailed look at how deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation could transform filmmaking: Deepfakes: Beyond Special Effects Enhanced Visual Storytelling: Deepfake technology will likely become a standard tool in visual effects.
Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: AI Takes Over Professional Competitive Eating, Instantly Optimizes Human Stomachs for Maximum Caloric Efficiency
o3 Mini: Algorithm Overlords: AI Dominates Competitive Bubble Wrap Popping, Leaving Humans Feeling Deflated.
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Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 22x less per token.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.08/M tokens | $1.1/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.2/M tokens | $4.4/M tokens |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens | 64K tokens |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | Yes (1 provider) | No |
| Released | Aug 2026 | Dec 2024 |
| At 10M a month | $0.80 | $11.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is developed by NVIDIA while o3 Mini is developed by OpenAI. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a 1.0M token context window vs o3 Mini's 64K. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and o3 Mini 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.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.08/M input tokens and o3 Mini costs $1.1/M input tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is $1.02/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 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and o3 Mini 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.