GPT-5.6 Terra vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
GPT-5.6 Terra is developed by OpenAI, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. GPT-5.6 Terra 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 Terra.
The two models share 3 published benchmarks. GPT-5.6 Terra leads on 3 of them. The widest gaps are on Terminal-Bench 2.1, where GPT-5.6 Terra scores 87.4% against 24.6%; BrowseComp, where GPT-5.6 Terra scores 87.5% against 37.0%. Averaged across everything we track, GPT-5.6 Terra sits at 59.0% 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 40 times cheaper than GPT-5.6 Terra at $2 and $12. GPT-5.6 Terra takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). GPT-5.6 Terra accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | GPT-5.6 Terra | 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 | $2.00 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $12.00 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 59.0% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 87.4% | 24.6% |
| BrowseComp | 87.5% | 37.0% |
| GPQA | 92.9% | 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 Terra — 0.6, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 56.0x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
GPT-5.6 Terra 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 Terra or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — GPT-5.6 Terra or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — GPT-5.6 Terra or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The GPT-5.6 Terra 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 Terra or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.