Model comparison
Gemma 2 9B vs Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 43.0 to 9.7.
- Gemma 2 9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2024-06-24 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 1M |
| Max output | — | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 35 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1385 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 2 9B: —, Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1364 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | — |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |
Math Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |
Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | 1373 |
Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1335 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |
Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 2 9B better than Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemma 2 9B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 29.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Nova 2 Lite share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.