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Grok 4.6 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

On price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is roughly 34.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

  • cost matters — it's about 34.3x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
NVIDIA
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
$0.20 / M
Context window
500,000
262,144
Released
Aug 2026
Aug 2026
License
Proprietary
OpenMDW License v1.1

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs less

For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 40.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.05/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) ($0.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Grok 4.6 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
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok 4.6
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$6.00
Best providerxAI
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input tokens$0.05
Output tokens$0.20
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s 262,144 tokens. Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.

Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 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.

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11.

Grok 4.6 is 0 month newer than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

1d newer
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Aug 11, 2026

2 weeks ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)'s cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

—

Provider Availability

Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is available from DeepInfra.

Grok 4.6

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.05/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) (NVIDIA) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok 4.6 compare to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. 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 Grok 4.6 cheaper than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 40.0x cheaper for input tokens. Grok 4.6 costs $2.00/M input and $6.00/M output via xai. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.05/M input and $0.20/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K 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 Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Key differences include context window (500K vs 262K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.05/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 Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is developed by NVIDIA.

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