Model comparison
Llama 3.1-8B vs Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
MetaSummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 42.5 to 8.0.
- Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- Llama 3.1-8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 22.8 | 39.0 |
| Released | 2024-07-23 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Max output | 4K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.08 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 43 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 19.9 (#335), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | 1386 |
| SciCode | 13.2% | — |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 22.3 (#123), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | 27.1% |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 14.5 (#316), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | 1364 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 5.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.48 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |
Math Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 9.5 (#311), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1179 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#302), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |
Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 34.2 (#244), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1176 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1144 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | 1372 |
Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 59.1 (#253), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |
Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#233), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
Llama 3.1-8B: 29.9 (#285), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Is Llama 3.1-8B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 19.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Nova 2 Lite share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.