Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Nova 2 Lite

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Nova 2 Lite Amazon

39.7

Rank #161 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Nova 2 Lite leads 37.5 to 25.9.
  • Both cost about the same: $0.30 input and $2.50 output per million tokens.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
ProviderGoogleAmazon
Noometry Index41.539.7
Released2026-07-212025-12-01
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1M
Max output66K64K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$2.50
Results tracked3919

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Coding14531385
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
APEX-Agents29.3%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—27.1%
GDP.pdf10%—

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Hard Prompts14411364
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles22%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13—

Math Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Math14331359
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench13%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Expert14351358
GPQA Diamond83.3%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—5.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Nova 2 Lite: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Non-English14271337
LMArena Chinese14691364
LMArena French14511381
LMArena German14541343
LMArena Japanese14271271
LMArena Korean14071284
LMArena Russian14431343
LMArena Spanish14421373

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Instruction Following14201335

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Longer Query14351335

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteNova 2 Lite
LMArena Text14351362
LMArena Creative Writing14201291
LMArena Multi-Turn14451338
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Nova 2 Lite?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Nova 2 Lite share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.

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