Claude Opus 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Claude Opus 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 59.8 to 22.0. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 72.7x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude Opus 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 59.8 to 22.0, ranking #1 overall.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Opus 5.5 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is roughly 72.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude Opus 5.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude Opus 5.5
- overall performance matters — it scores 59.8 and ranks #1 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026
Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
- cost matters — it's about 72.7x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
31 reported for Claude Opus 5.5 · 13 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Claude Opus 5.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-bench Multilingual), while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is better at 0 benchmarks.
Claude Opus 5.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude Opus 5.5 ($4.00/1M tokens) is 50.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.08/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Opus 5.5 ($20.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.20/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 5.5 is more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude Opus 5.5 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s 262,144 tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Claude Opus 5.5 is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Claude Opus 5.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.
Claude Opus 5.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude Opus 5.5
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude Opus 5.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) uses OpenMDW License v1.1.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
OpenMDW License v1.1
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude Opus 5.5 was released on 2026-09-22, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11.
Claude Opus 5.5 is 1 month newer than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).
Sep 22, 2026
0 days ago
1mo newerAug 11, 2026
1 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Claude Opus 5.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-01, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Claude Opus 5.5's training data extends to 2026-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s cutoff date.
Jun 2026
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Provider Availability
Claude Opus 5.5 is available from Anthropic. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is available from DeepInfra.
Claude Opus 5.5
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude Opus 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).
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