Model comparison
Nova 2 Lite vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
MicrosoftSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nova 2 Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nova 2 Lite leads 53.9 to 31.1.
- Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 29.3 |
| Released | 2025-12-01 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1M | — |
| Max output | 64K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.50 | — |
| Results tracked | 19 | 32 |
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Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1385 | 1101 |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1364 | 1100 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |
Math Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1151 |
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1358 | 1067 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |
Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1337 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1364 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1381 | 1135 |
| LMArena German | 1343 | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1271 | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | 1284 | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1373 | 1111 |
Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1335 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |
Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1335 | 1088 |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1291 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1338 | 1068 |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Nova 2 Lite better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Is Nova 2 Lite or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Nova 2 Lite and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nova 2 Lite has 19 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.