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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

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  3. Llama 4 Maverick vs NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Llama 4 Maverick vs NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) is more budget-friendly at $0/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Llama 4 Maverick if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Executive Verdict Summary

NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) holds empirical advantage (2 of 3 metrics)

Coding / SWESWE-bench
Llama 4 MaverickTop code solve rate
ReasoningGPQA / Live
Llama 4 MaverickTop logical accuracy
Best Value$/1M Tok
Llama 4 MaverickLowest API billing cost
Speed / TokTok/Sec
Llama 4 MaverickFastest stream rate

Verified Advantage Breakdown

3 benchmarks evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Llama 4 Maverick (1)NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) (2)
Llama 4 Maverick
1 of 3 Wins
✓Context window
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)
2 of 3 Wins
✓Input price✓Output price
Meta
Leads 1 of 3
Llama 4 Maverick

Meta natively multimodal open-weight flagship.

Elo 1,468In: $0.2 · Out: $0.8/1M
nvidia
Leads 2 of 3
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning:free). Preview until a second source matches.

In: $0 · Out: $0/1M
Top Rival Showdowns for Llama 4 Maverick
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar LeaderNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) Wins

NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)

$0 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top standard models across 6 key capability dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
0–100 %ile

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Llama 4 Maverick (8)vsNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) (2)
Llama 4 Maverick: 8W (80%)Overall: Llama 4 MaverickNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free): 2W (20%)
← Llama 4 MaverickNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) →
🏆Llama 4 Maverick Leads(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Llama 4 MaverickvsNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)
Preference Elo
1,468vs—
Coding Elo
1,452vs—
SWE-bench
57.1%vs—
LiveBench
62.8%vs—
GPQA Diamond
74.6%vs—
Llama 4 Maverick: 5WNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free): 0W
🏆Llama 4 Maverick Leads(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Llama 4 MaverickvsNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)
Output speed
130 tok/svs—
Time to first token
170 msvs—
Llama 4 Maverick: 2WNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free): 0W
🏆NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) Leads(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Llama 4 MaverickvsNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)
Output price
$0.8/1Mvs$0/1M+$0.8/1M
Input price
$0.2/1Mvs$0/1M+$0.2/1M
Context window
1Mvs1M+49k
Llama 4 Maverick: 1WNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free): 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Llama 4 MaverickNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)
Preference Elo
Llama 4 Maverick1,468
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
Coding Elo
Llama 4 Maverick1,452
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
LiveBench
Llama 4 Maverick62.8%
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
SWE-bench
Llama 4 Maverick57.1%
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
GPQA Diamond
Llama 4 Maverick74.6%
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
Time to first token
Llama 4 Maverick170 ms
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
Output speed
Llama 4 Maverick130 tok/s
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)—
Input priceNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) +$0.2/1M
Llama 4 Maverick$0.2/1M
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)$0/1M
Output priceNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) +$0.8/1M
Llama 4 Maverick$0.8/1M
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)$0/1M
Context windowLlama 4 Maverick +49k
Llama 4 Maverick1M
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)1M
BenchmarkLlama 4 MaverickNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)Advantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,468
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
Coding Elo
1,452
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
LiveBench
62.8%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
SWE-bench
57.1%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
GPQA Diamond
74.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Time to first token
170 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Output speed
130 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Input price
$0.2/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$0.2/1M
Output price
$0.8/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$0.8/1M
Context window
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+49k

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free):Pick NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 2
    Llama 4 Maverick:Pick Llama 4 Maverick for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)

Lower output list price ($0/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGLlama 4 Maverick

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionLlama 4 Maverick

Llama 4 Maverick is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatNVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)Lower output list price ($0/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGLlama 4 MaverickLarger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionLlama 4 MaverickLlama 4 Maverick is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
compareApr 9, 2026

Llama vs Claude: open-weight Meta versus the Anthropic crown

Hub remaps to top Meta vs top Anthropic Elo. Usually Maverick vs Opus 5.

launchApr 8, 2026

Llama 4 Maverick: Meta’s natively multimodal open-weight flagship

Apr 2026. The Llama vs Claude hub uses the top Meta Elo row — usually Maverick.

launchDec 6, 2024

Llama 3.3 70B stays as the previous Meta 70B workhorse

Dec 2024 instruct 70B. Still a self-host baseline. Llama 4 is the 2026 buy.

Cast Your Matchup Vote

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Meta

Llama 4 Maverick

Elo 1,468
SWE-bench57.1%
Speed (tok/s)130 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.2/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.8/1M
nvidia

NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)

Elo n/a
SWE-bench—
Speed (tok/s)1M
Input / 1M Tokens$0/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Llama 4 Maverick or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Llama 4 Maverick or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) output tokens are $0/1M versus $0.8/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Llama 4 Maverick or NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Llama 4 Maverick accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?
Llama 4 Maverick is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Llama 4 Maverick and NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • compare · Apr 9, 2026

    Llama vs Claude: open-weight Meta versus the Anthropic crown

  • launch · Apr 8, 2026

    Llama 4 Maverick: Meta’s natively multimodal open-weight flagship

  • launch · Dec 6, 2024

    Llama 3.3 70B stays as the previous Meta 70B workhorse

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Llama 4 Maverick matchups →|All NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) matchups →
Llama 4 Maverick vs Llama 3.3 70B (previous llama)Llama 4 Maverick vs Llama 4 Scout (next llama)Doubao Pro 1.5 vs Llama 4 MaverickYi-Lightning vs Llama 4 MaverickMiniMax M2.5 vs Llama 4 MaverickMistral Large 3 vs Llama 4 Maverick