Kimi K2.6 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Kimi K2.6 is developed by Moonshot AI, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comes from NVIDIA. Kimi K2.6 was released in April 2026, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) followed 4 months later in August 2026. Kimi K2.6 is the larger model at roughly 1.0 trillion parameters, against 30 billion for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B).
The two models share 6 published benchmarks. Kimi K2.6 leads on 6 of them. The widest gaps are on BrowseComp, where Kimi K2.6 scores 86.3% against 37.0%; SWE-bench Multilingual, where Kimi K2.6 scores 76.7% against 39.3%. Averaged across everything we track, Kimi K2.6 sits at 71.2% 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 24 times cheaper than Kimi K2.6 at $1.20 and $4.50. Both accept a context window of about 262K tokens. Kimi K2.6 accepts text and images as input, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) accepts text.
| Characteristic | Kimi K2.6 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Moonshot AI | NVIDIA |
| Release Date | April 20, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | 1.0T | 30B |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Context (input) | 262K | 262K |
| Context (output) | 131K | 262K |
| Input Price / 1M | $1.20 | $0.05 |
| Output Price / 1M | $4.50 | $0.20 |
| Average Score | 71.2% | 45.3% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| BrowseComp | 86.3% | 37.0% |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 76.7% | 39.3% |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 80.2% | 51.6% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 36.4% | 11.7% |
| SciCode | 52.2% | 32.6% |
| GPQA | 90.5% | 75.0% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads in 2 out of 5 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Kimi K2.6 — 0.7, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
On SWE-Bench, both models are nearly equal: Kimi K2.6 — 0.8, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) — 0.5.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is 22.8x cheaper: input $0.05/1M vs $1.20/1M tokens.
Kimi K2.6 supports a larger context: 262K vs 262K tokens.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is newer: released 8/11/2026 vs 4/20/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which model is cheaper — Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
Which has a larger context window — Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?
The Kimi K2.6 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 Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.