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MAI-Thinking-1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) are closely matched at 32.8 and 29.9 on the LLM Stats Score.

Microsoft · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 32.8 and 29.9.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose MAI-Thinking-1

  • you are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

MAI-Thinking-1
Microsoft
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
NVIDIA
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
32.8
#122
29.9
#142
Reasoning
33.6
#112
29.2
#143
Coding
19.4
#121
14.8
#151
Agents
12.9
#117
12.4
#124
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
—
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
MAI-Thinking-1
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
Math
33.7#54
23.6#135
Tool use
10.7#136
5.6#168
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

23 reported for MAI-Thinking-1 · 10 for Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

1 shared

MAI-Thinking-1 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

926.0B diff

MAI-Thinking-1 has 926.0B more parameters than Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB), making it 1251.4% larger.

Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
1.0Tparameters
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
74.0Bparameters
1000.0B
MAI-Thinking-1
74.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) supports multimodal inputs, whereas MAI-Thinking-1 does not.

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

MAI-Thinking-1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

MAI-Thinking-1 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) uses OpenMDW License v1.1.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

MAI-Thinking-1

Proprietary

Closed source

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

MAI-Thinking-1 was released on 2026-06-02, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) was released on 2026-10-15.

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is 5 months newer than MAI-Thinking-1.

MAI-Thinking-1

Jun 2, 2026

4 months ago

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Oct 15, 2026

2 days ago

4mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-05-01, while MAI-Thinking-1's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)'s training data extends to 2026-05-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without MAI-Thinking-1's cutoff date.

MAI-Thinking-1

—

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

May 2026

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

MAI-Thinking-1
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about MAI-Thinking-1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB).

Which is better, MAI-Thinking-1 or Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 32.8 and 29.9. MAI-Thinking-1 is made by Microsoft and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does MAI-Thinking-1 compare to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) in benchmarks?

MAI-Thinking-1 scores LongFact: 98.0%, AIME 2025: 97.0%, AIME 2026: 94.5%, GraphWalks: 90.0%, AIR-Bench: 88.0%. Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) scores PinchBench: 87.8%, GPQA: 86.4%, BrowseComp: 66.8%, AA-LCR: 64.1%, MCP Atlas: 52.2%.

What are the main differences between MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (32.8 vs 29.9), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs OpenMDW License v1.1). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes MAI-Thinking-1 and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

MAI-Thinking-1 is developed by Microsoft and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is developed by NVIDIA.

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