Model comparison
Grok 4.6 vs Nova 2 Lite
Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.6 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 Grok 4.6 leads 61.3 to 26.4.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.6.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 500K.
Side by side
| Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 56.8 | 39.0 |
| Released | 2026-08-12 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 500K | 1M |
| Max output | 500K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $6 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 49 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 58.0 (#14), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | 1386 |
| DeepSWE | 67.5% | — |
| FrontierCode | 48% | — |
| CursorBench | 41.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1620 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 25.3% | — |
| SciCode | 56.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 67.3% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,508 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#25), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 65.3% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| GDP.pdf | 17.2% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 9,047 | — |
Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 61.3 (#18), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1445 | 1364 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 67.1% | — |
| SimpleBench | 75.9% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 87.5% | — |
| CritPt | 19.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 40% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 30.5% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 34% | — |
| DTBench | 97.3% | — |
| LMCA | 48.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 156.48 | — |
Math Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 66.8 (#19), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1416 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 66% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 31.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 99.2% | — |
| ProofBench | 51% | — |
Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#18), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1463 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 94% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 49.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Grok 4.6: 43.9 (#18), Nova 2 Lite: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1265 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 33.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 40% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1452 | — |
Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 53.3 (#67), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1422 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1479 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1458 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1425 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1383 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1395 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1427 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1408 | 1372 |
Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 75.6 (#59), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1431 | 1335 |
Long Context Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 44.4 (#62), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1453 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads
Grok 4.6: 62.5 (#77), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1427 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1430 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1422 | 1338 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4.6 better than Nova 2 Lite?
Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 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; Grok 4.6 lists at $2 and $6.
Is Grok 4.6 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.0 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 500K.
How many benchmarks do Grok 4.6 and Nova 2 Lite share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.6 has 49 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.