Model comparison
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) vs Nova 2 Lite
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) scores higher in 7 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads 62.3 to 53.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard: 59.1% for Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) and 27.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.57 / $2.30 for Kimi K2 (Jul 2025).
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 41.2 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2025-07-12 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Max output | 262K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.57 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.30 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 42 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 42.4 (#102), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1399 | 1385 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 63.4% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 59.1% | — |
| GSO | 4.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 42.8% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 597.5 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 32.4 (#64), Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 59.1% | 27.1% |
| Terminal-Bench | 35.7% | — |
| METR Time Horizons | 59.2% | — |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 23.3 (#179), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1384 | 1364 |
| SimpleBench | 26.3% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 64.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.01 | — |
| ForecastBench | 60.2 | — |
Math Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 42.7 (#83), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1359 |
| Omni-MATH | 65.4% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 21.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 37.3 (#157), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.9% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1365 | 1358 |
| MMLU-Pro | 81.9% | — |
| Confabulations | 20.4% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 65.3% | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 49.6 (#130), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1372 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1415 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1379 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1387 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1349 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1325 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1385 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1386 | 1373 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 71.1 (#156), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1348 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 85% | — |
Long Context Too close to call
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 41.2 (#145), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1353 | 1335 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
| CL-bench | 17.6% | — |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) leads
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025): 62.3 (#78), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1380 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1350 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1371 | 1338 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 85.6% | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1666 | — |
| WildBench | 86.2% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) better than Nova 2 Lite?
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.2 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) 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 (Jul 2025) lists at $0.57 and $2.30.
Is Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.7 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 (Jul 2025) and Nova 2 Lite share?
19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2 (Jul 2025) has 42 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.