Grok 4.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. Grok 4.5 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; xAI has not disclosed the parameter count of Grok 4.5.
The two models share 4 published benchmarks. Grok 4.5 leads on 4 of them. The widest gaps are on Terminal-Bench 2.1, where Grok 4.5 scores 83.0% against 24.6%; OmniScience, where Grok 4.5 scores 52.0% against 17.5%. Averaged across everything we track, Grok 4.5 sits at 52.9% and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) at 45.3%.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is the cheaper API at $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens, roughly 25 times cheaper than Grok 4.5 at $2 and $6. Grok 4.5 takes the larger context window at 500K tokens, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B). Grok 4.5 accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | Grok 4.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | xAI | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | July 16, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 500K | 262K |
| Context (output) | — | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $2.00 | $0.08 |
| Output Price / 1M | $6.00 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 52.9% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 83.0% | 24.6% |
| OmniScience | 52.0% | 17.5% |
| Tau3 Banking | 33.0% | 9.3% |
| GPQA | 93.0% | 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: Grok 4.5 — 0.5, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 28.6x cheaper: input $0.08/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
Grok 4.5 supports a larger context: 500K vs 262K tokens.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is newer: released 8/11/2026 vs 7/16/2026.
More About These Models
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Grok 4.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — Grok 4.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — Grok 4.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The Grok 4.5 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 Grok 4.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.