Model comparison
Grok-3 mini vs Nova 2 Lite
Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok-3 mini scores higher in 6 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 2 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Nova 2 Lite leads 27.5 to 13.6.
Side by side
| Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 41.2 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2025-04-09 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | 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 Too close to call
Grok-3 mini: 40.8 (#131), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1379 | 1385 |
| Aider Polyglot | 49.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 42.6% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Grok-3 mini: —, Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Grok-3 mini: 13.6 (#334), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1375 | 1364 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.4% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 61.3% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 16.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 140.35 | — |
Math Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 42.1 (#85), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1386 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 77.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 31.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 90.9% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 5.9% | — |
Knowledge Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 46.4 (#81), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1395 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 79.9% | — |
| Confabulations | 10.8% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 67.5% | — |
Multilingual Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 48.1 (#145), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1352 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1387 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1357 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1349 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1342 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1335 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1353 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1381 | 1373 |
Instruction Following Grok-3 mini leads
Grok-3 mini: 78.5 (#9), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1357 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 95.1% | — |
Long Context Too close to call
Grok-3 mini: 41.0 (#147), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1372 | 1335 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
Grok-3 mini: 52.5 (#169), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1370 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1342 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1355 | 1338 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 73.5% | — |
| WildBench | 65.1% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok-3 mini better than Nova 2 Lite?
Grok-3 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.
Is Grok-3 mini or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (40.8 vs 40.7); test both on your own repository before choosing.
How many benchmarks do Grok-3 mini and Nova 2 Lite share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok-3 mini has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.