Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Nova 2 Lite

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Google

56.7

Rank #23 Confirmed

Nova 2 Lite Amazon

39.7

Rank #161 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher in 9 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads 71.7 to 27.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 10.4% for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
  • Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
ProviderGoogleAmazon
Noometry Index56.739.7
Released2026-02-192025-12-01
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1M
Max output66K64K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$12$2.50
Results tracked7119

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 42.5 (#99), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Coding14841385
SWE-bench Verified75.6%—
DeepSWE11.7%—
LMArena WebDev1447—
SciCode58.9%—
GSO22.6%—
WeirdML72.1%—
MirrorCode8.9%—
ALE-Bench1,161—
AlgoTune2.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.7 (#34), Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
Terminal-Bench80.2%—
APEX-Agents35.3%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—27.1%
τ²-bench Banking26%—
DeepResearch Bench47.8%—
PostTrainBench22%—
BALROG57%—
ExploitBench26.1%—
GBAEval0.8%—
GDP.pdf17%—
LMArena Search1211—
METR Time Horizons77%—
Vending-Bench 23,774—

Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.7 (#12), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Hard Prompts14851364
ARC-AGI-277.1%—
SimpleBench79.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)97.4%—
ARC-AGI-198%—
CritPt17.7%—
Chess Puzzles55%—
EnigmaEval36.8%—
Thematic Generalization79.4%—
EBR-Bench14.3%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.1%—
LMCA53.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.77—
ForecastBench59—

Math Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 62.1 (#34), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Math14851359
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)59.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 426.8%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions86.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%—
ProofBench26%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)36.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)16.7%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.8 (#3), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
Vectara Hallucination Rate10.4%5.1%
LMArena Expert14851358
GPQA Diamond94.4%—
Humanity's Last Exam46.4%—
SimpleQA Verified73.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.9 (#69), Nova 2 Lite: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Vision1296—
Blueprint-Bench 226.5%—
Furniture Assembly26.7%—
LMArena Document1444—

Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 57.0 (#12), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Non-English14771337
LMArena Chinese15291364
LMArena French14871381
LMArena German14911343
LMArena Japanese14931271
LMArena Korean14551284
LMArena Russian14981343
LMArena Spanish14791373

Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 77.0 (#32), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Instruction Following14661335

Long Context Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 47.4 (#18), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Longer Query14831335
CL-bench20.8%—
CL-bench Life16.9%—

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 66.1 (#37), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewNova 2 Lite
LMArena Text14811362
LMArena Creative Writing14821291
LMArena Multi-Turn14881338
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1491—
EQ-Bench 41142—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview better than Nova 2 Lite?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview lists at $2 and $12.

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.5 versus 40.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Nova 2 Lite share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has 71 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.

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