Claude Opus 5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Claude Opus 5 is developed by Anthropic, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. Claude Opus 5 was released in July 2026, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) followed a month later in August 2026. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has a published size of about 30 billion parameters; Anthropic has not disclosed the parameter count of Claude Opus 5.
The two models share 2 published benchmarks. Claude Opus 5 leads on 2 of them. The widest gaps are on BrowseComp, where Claude Opus 5 scores 90.8% against 37.0%; Humanity's Last Exam, where Claude Opus 5 scores 64.7% against 11.7%. Averaged across everything we track, Claude Opus 5 sits at 55.0% and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) at 45.3%.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is the cheaper API at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens, roughly 100 times cheaper than Claude Opus 5 at $5 and $25. Claude Opus 5 takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). Claude Opus 5 accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | Claude Opus 5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | July 24, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 262K |
| Context (output) | 128K | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $5.00 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $25.00 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 55.0% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| BrowseComp | 90.8% | 37.0% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 64.7% | 11.7% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude Opus 5 — 0.5, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 120.0x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $5.00/1M tokens.
Claude Opus 5 supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is newer: released 8/11/2026 vs 7/24/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude Opus 5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — Claude Opus 5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — Claude Opus 5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The Claude Opus 5 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude Opus 5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.