# LongCat-2.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B (slim)

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B scores 64.7 (B) to LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/longcat-2-5-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b.md (~10,500 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/longcat-2-5-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/longcat-2-5-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B scores 64.7 (B) on agent readiness against LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- LongCat-2.5: D 50.5, rank #145 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/longcat-2-5.min.md
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B: B 64.7, rank #20 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b.min.md
- LongCat-2.5, good for Operators with NPU clusters, and anyone tracking what the open flagships can do
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B, good for Agents on one 24 to 32 GB GPU or Mac that want a fast tool-calling reasoning model with long context and a permissive licence Ahead on Reach, 85 against 35; Risk, 75 against 60; Agent interface, 90 against 75; Documentation and upkeep, 75 against 46.

| Category | LongCat-2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 35 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 60 | 75 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 75 | 90 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 46 | 75 |

| Fact (where they differ) | LongCat-2.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Meituan (LongCat) | NVIDIA |
| Licence | MIT | OpenMDW-1.1 |
| Last release | 2026-11-10 | 2026-08-11 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no document linked |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +50: LongCat-2.5 35 (Memory 0, the smallest build is Meituan's W4A4 repository, 1,336 GB, and 1,336 GB × 1.2 = 1,603 GB, far above 256 GB.); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 85 (Memory earns 25, since ggml-org's 18.9 GB Q4_0 GGUF and Ollama's 19 GB nvfp4 build both need under 24 GB with the fifth added.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +29: LongCat-2.5 46 (Model card 11, Intended use, limitations (the usage considerations), the architecture and the parameter counts are on the card.); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 75 (The model card earns 20, all seven items with limitations in the linked subcard.)
- Risk, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +15: LongCat-2.5 60 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 75 (File safety earns 25, safetensors only with no Python files, and nothing from the repository runs to load it or parse its output.)
- Agent interface, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B +15: LongCat-2.5 75 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (11,823 characters), with a copy in tokenizer_config.json.); Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B 90 (The chat template earns 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)