Model comparison
Kimi K2.5 vs Nova 2 Lite
Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.5 scores higher in 9 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.5 leads 50.3 to 34.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 14.2% for Kimi K2.5 and 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $2.25 for Kimi K2.5.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Kimi K2.5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 47.8 | 39.0 |
| Released | 2026-01-27 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Max output | 262K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.45 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.25 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 51 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 48.7 (#48), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1474 | 1386 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.8% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 70.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1436 | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 67.3% | — |
| SciCode | 49% | — |
| WeirdML | 45.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 821.65 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 34.0 (#44), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 43.2% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| OSWorld | 63.3% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 1,198 | — |
Reasoning Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 31.2 (#74), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1454 | 1364 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 11.8% | — |
| SimpleBench | 46.8% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 78.5% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 69.9% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 65.3% | — |
| CritPt | 3.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 12% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3.4% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 69.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.05 | — |
Math Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 50.3 (#46), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1470 | 1359 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 62.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 92.2% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 27.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 4.2% | — |
Knowledge Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 53.6 (#52), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 14.2% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1466 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 87.6% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 24.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.3% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Kimi K2.5: 40.4 (#37), Nova 2 Lite: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1430 | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 54.1 (#50), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1433 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1495 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1454 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1441 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1422 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1412 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1436 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1450 | 1372 |
Instruction Following Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 75.5 (#60), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1431 | 1335 |
Long Context Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 52.1 (#7), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | 1335 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 86.1% | — |
| CL-bench | 19.3% | — |
| CL-bench Life | 13.2% | — |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 65.3 (#51), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1445 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1423 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1444 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1579 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2.5 better than Nova 2 Lite?
Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.8 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.5 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; Kimi K2.5 lists at $0.45 and $2.25.
Is Kimi K2.5 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Kimi K2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.5 and Nova 2 Lite share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.5 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.