Llama 4 Maverick vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
| Signal | Llama 4 Maverick | Delta | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 67 | -- | |
Benchmarks | 76 | +76 | |
Pricing | 99 | 0 | |
Context window size | 96 | +10 | |
Recency | 35 | -65 | |
Output Capacity | 67 | -18 | |
| Overall Result | 2 wins | of 6 | 3 wins |
Score History
70.7
current score
Llama 4 Maverick
right now
40
current score
Llama 4 Maverick
Meta
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning saves you $34.38/month
That's $412.50/year compared to Llama 4 Maverick at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Llama 4 Maverick | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 71 | 40 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Rank | #165 | #283 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Quality Rank | #165 | #283 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Adoption Rank | #165 | #283 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1049K | 262K | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Pricing | $0.19/$0.65/M | $0.07/$0.20/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 67 | 67 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Benchmarks | 76 | -- | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Pricing | 99 | 100 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Context window size | 96 | 86 | Llama 4 Maverick |
| Recency | 35 | 100 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Output Capacity | 67 | 86 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 71/100 (rank #165), placing it in the top 43% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 40/100 (rank #283), placing it in the top 3% of all 290 models tracked.
Llama 4 Maverick has a 31-point advantage, which typically translates to noticeably stronger performance on complex reasoning, code generation, and multi-step tasks.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick when you need:
- Processing long documents or large codebases (1049K token context)
- Multimodal workflows that require image understanding
- Self-hosted deployments where you need full control over the model
Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
- Self-hosted deployments where you need full control over the model
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning offers 68% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $4.05/month with Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs $12.60/month with Llama 4 Maverick - a $8.55 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1049K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($0.20/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (71/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Llama 4 Maverick clearly outperforms Nemotron 3.5 Lightning with a significant 30.700000000000003-point lead. For most general use cases, Llama 4 Maverick is the stronger choice. However, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning may still excel in niche scenarios.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Llama 4 Maverick
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
68% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Llama 4 Maverick
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Llama 4 Maverick
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Llama 4 Maverick
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Meta
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Llama 4 Maverick | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoningdiffers | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Llama 4 Maverick
Meta
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning saves you $0.7545/month
That's 67% cheaper than Llama 4 Maverick at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Llama 4 Maverick | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1.0M | 262K |
| Max Output Tokens | 16,384 | 235,929 |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Created | Apr 5, 2025 | Aug 11, 2026 |