MiniMax M2.5 vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
At a Glance
| Compare |  MiniMax M2.5MiniMax | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.27Openrouter ↗ · Aug 28, 2026 | Not reported |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $1.08Openrouter ↗ · Aug 28, 2026 | Not reported |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 197K | 1,049K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.5 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,358.90100% of row best · rating · minimax-m2.5; 95% CI [1354.93997261, 1362.86079851]; votes 40843; rank 184 | 1,330.7298% of row best · rating · nvidia-nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4; 95% CI [1323.44362436, 1337.99938875]; votes 8338; rank 213 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 1 benchmark winNo overall winner | 0 benchmark winsNo overall winner |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | MiniMax-M2.5 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | MiniMax | NVIDIA |
| Family | Minimax M2 5 | Nvidia Nemotron 3 5 Lightning |
| Model | MiniMax-M2.5 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Version | MiniMax-M2.5 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-02-12 | 2026-08-11 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 197K | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | 228.7B | 30B |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 3B |
| License | other | openmdw-1.1 |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) | Fireworks Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, tools | agents, chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
MiniMax M2.5 Capabilities
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B Capabilities
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MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | MiniMax-M3MiniMax | family variantstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peerstext |
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
MiniMax M2.5 vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B FAQs
Is MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both MiniMax M2.5 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
Only MiniMax M2.5 has a directly sourced input price: $0.27 per million tokens. Only MiniMax M2.5 has a directly sourced output price: $1.08 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has the larger sourced context window. MiniMax M2.5 supports 197K and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B supports 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. MiniMax M2.5 is open weight; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is open weight.
Can MiniMax M2.5 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B understand images?+
MiniMax M2.5 is not documented with image input; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. MiniMax M2.5 is — and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B is —.
Do MiniMax M2.5 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B support reasoning and tool use?+
MiniMax M2.5: tool calling. NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: reasoning and tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
MiniMax M2.5 has 2 sourced provider routes; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B has 1, so MiniMax M2.5 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, MiniMax M2.5 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.