GPT-5.6 Sol vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
GPT-5.6 Sol is developed by OpenAI, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. GPT-5.6 Sol 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; OpenAI has not disclosed the parameter count of GPT-5.6 Sol.
The two models share 3 published benchmarks. GPT-5.6 Sol leads on 3 of them. The widest gaps are on Terminal-Bench 2.1, where GPT-5.6 Sol scores 88.8% against 24.6%; BrowseComp, where GPT-5.6 Sol scores 90.4% against 37.0%. Averaged across everything we track, GPT-5.6 Sol sits at 63.9% 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 GPT-5.6 Sol at $5 and $30. GPT-5.6 Sol takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). GPT-5.6 Sol accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | GPT-5.6 Sol | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | OpenAI | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | July 9, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 1.1M | 262K |
| Context (output) | 128K | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $5.00 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $30.00 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 63.9% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 88.8% | 24.6% |
| BrowseComp | 90.4% | 37.0% |
| GPQA | 94.6% | 75.0% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: GPT-5.6 Sol — 0.6, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 140.0x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $5.00/1M tokens.
GPT-5.6 Sol supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is newer: released 8/11/2026 vs 7/9/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — GPT-5.6 Sol or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — GPT-5.6 Sol or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — GPT-5.6 Sol or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The GPT-5.6 Sol 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 GPT-5.6 Sol or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.