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LFM2.5-VL-3B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Liquid AI · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LFM2.5-VL-3B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is better at 1 benchmark (IFBench). Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

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

Choose LFM2.5-VL-3B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LFM2.5-VL-3B
Liquid AI
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
NVIDIA
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
— / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.20 / M
Context window
—
262,144
Released
Aug 2026
Aug 2026
License
LFM Open License v1.0
OpenMDW License v1.1

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

LFM2.5-VL-3B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is better at 1 benchmark (IFBench).

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

26.9B diff

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has 26.9B more parameters than LFM2.5-VL-3B, making it 860.5% larger.

Liquid AI
LFM2.5-VL-3B
3.1Bparameters
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
30.0Bparameters
3.1B
LFM2.5-VL-3B
30.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

Liquid AI
LFM2.5-VL-3B
Input- 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

LFM2.5-VL-3B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) does not.

LFM2.5-VL-3B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

LFM2.5-VL-3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LFM2.5-VL-3B is licensed under LFM Open License v1.0, 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.

LFM2.5-VL-3B

LFM Open License v1.0

Open weights

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LFM2.5-VL-3B was released on 2026-08-12, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) was released on 2026-08-11.

LFM2.5-VL-3B is 0 month newer than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

LFM2.5-VL-3B

Aug 12, 2026

2 weeks ago

1d newer
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

Aug 11, 2026

2 weeks ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LFM2.5-VL-3B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LFM2.5-VL-3B
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LFM2.5-VL-3B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).

Which is better, LFM2.5-VL-3B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. LFM2.5-VL-3B is made by Liquid AI and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does LFM2.5-VL-3B compare to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) in benchmarks?

LFM2.5-VL-3B scores DocVQA: 91.1%, POPE: 88.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 87.9%, TextVQA: 84.3%, OCRBench: 84.2%. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) scores PinchBench: 85.4%, MMLU-Pro: 81.9%, GPQA: 75.4%, IFBench: 71.9%, AA-LCR: 52.0%.

What are the context window sizes for LFM2.5-VL-3B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

LFM2.5-VL-3B supports an unknown number of 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 LFM2.5-VL-3B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (LFM Open License v1.0 vs OpenMDW License v1.1). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LFM2.5-VL-3B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

LFM2.5-VL-3B is developed by Liquid AI and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is developed by NVIDIA.

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