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Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 21.9. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 36.4x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 21.9, ranking #2 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Sonnet 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 36.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 58.3 and ranks #2 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 36.4x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
NVIDIA
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
58.3
#2
21.9
#196
Reasoning
56.8
#2
19.5
#214
Coding
48.6
#2
8.1
#195
Agents
42.5
#3
6.6
#155
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.08 / M
Output price
$10.00 / M
$0.20 / M
Context window
1,000,000
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Math
37.6#30
17.9#195
Tool use
34.3#2
-0.2#194
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

47 reported for Claude Sonnet 5.5 · 13 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

1 shared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-bench Multilingual), while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Oct 11 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 25.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.08/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($10.00/1M tokens) is 50.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Oct 11 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$10.00
Best providerAnthropic
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input tokens$0.08
Output tokens$0.20
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5.5 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Sun Oct 11 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 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.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on 2026-09-28, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 2 months newer than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Sep 28, 2026

1 weeks ago

1mo newer
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Aug 11, 2026

2 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Jun 2026

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

—

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is available from Anthropic. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is available from DeepInfra.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $10.00/1M

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.08/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 21.9. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is made by Anthropic and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude Sonnet 5.5 compare to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores BenchCAD (with Python tool): 96.3%, ArXivMath (with tools): 95.2%, Global-MMLU: 92.1%, MILU: 91.6%, SWE-bench Multilingual: 90.3%. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) scores PinchBench: 85.4%, MMLU-Pro: 81.9%, GPQA: 75.4%, IFBench: 71.9%, AA-LCR: 52.0%.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 25.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00/M input and $10.00/M output via anthropic. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.08/M input and $0.20/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports 1.0M tokens and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (58.3 vs 21.9), context window (1.0M vs 262K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.08/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs OpenMDW License v1.1). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is developed by NVIDIA.

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