Noometry

Model comparison

Gemma 3 27B vs Nova 2 Lite

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 27B Google

30.5

Rank #277 Confirmed

Nova 2 Lite Amazon

39.0

Rank #161 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 2 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where Nova 2 Lite leads 40.1 to 22.1.
  • Gemma 3 27B is cheaper at $0.08 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
  • Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
  • Gemma 3 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
ProviderGoogleAmazon
Noometry Index30.539.0
Released2025-03-112025-12-01
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K1M
Max output8K64K
Input $ / M tokens$0.08$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$0.16$2.50
Results tracked4319

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Category by category

Coding Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 22.1 (#329), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Coding13221386
Aider Polyglot4.9%—
SciCode21.2%—
LiveBench Coding39.9%—

Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 24.9 (#105), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard29.5%27.1%

Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 16.3 (#297), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Hard Prompts13401364
Kagi LLM Benchmark40.4%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles0%—
LiveBench Reasoning43.8%—
DTBench52.5%—
LiveBench Data Analysis51.5%—
LMCA12.3%—
Epoch Capabilities Index130.04—
LiveBench50%—

Math Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 24.4 (#261), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Math13121359
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202522.5%—
LiveBench Math55.4%—
MATH Level 574%—

Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.4 (#256), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.4%5.1%
LMArena Expert13031360
GPQA Diamond47.7%—
Confabulations40.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 32.0 (#94), Nova 2 Lite: —

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Vision1165—
GeoBench52%—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 47.0 (#150), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Non-English13341337
LMArena Chinese13471364
LMArena French13681381
LMArena German13621343
LMArena Japanese12871273
LMArena Korean13081284
LMArena Russian13491343
LMArena Spanish13481372

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 70.8 (#155), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Instruction Following13211335
LiveBench Instruction Following74.9%—

Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#288), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Longer Query13331335
Fiction.LiveBench33.3%—

Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads

Gemma 3 27B: 52.7 (#161), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)

BenchmarkGemma 3 27BNova 2 Lite
LMArena Text13581362
LMArena Creative Writing13461291
LMArena Multi-Turn13441338
Short-Story Creative Writing79.9%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1266—
LiveBench Language34.6%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 27B better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Nova 2 Lite?

Gemma 3 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Gemma 3 27B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 22.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Nova 2 Lite share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.

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