# Amazon Nova Lite vs MiniMax M1

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Lite costs 9.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/amazon-nova-lite-vs-minimax-m1
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Lite scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax M1 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax M1 leads 53.1 to 42.1.
- Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.24 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 300K.
- MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 31.9 | 40.3 |
| Rank | 265 | 150 |
| Context | 300K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.55 |
| Output $/M | $0.24 | $2.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Amazon Nova Lite: 32.5 (#270)
- MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1239 | 1359 |
| LiveBench Coding | 27.5% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 236.25 | — |

## Reasoning

- Amazon Nova Lite: 19.3 (#260)
- MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1220 | 1339 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 36.7% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 37.2% | — |
| LiveBench | 36.4% | — |

## Math

- Amazon Nova Lite: 27.8 (#247)
- MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1227 | 1361 |
| Omni-MATH | 23.3% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 36.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Amazon Nova Lite: 26.3 (#259)
- MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1201 | 1317 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 3.6% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 60% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.1% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 39.7% | — |
| MMLU | 77% | — |

## Multimodal

- Amazon Nova Lite: 25.5 (#123)
- MiniMax M1: —

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 990 | — |

## Multilingual

- Amazon Nova Lite: 38.0 (#232)
- MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1208 | 1319 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1225 | 1360 |
| LMArena French | 1237 | 1370 |
| LMArena German | 1229 | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1153 | 1217 |
| LMArena Korean | 1153 | 1266 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1329 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1226 | 1353 |

## Instruction Following

- Amazon Nova Lite: 59.3 (#255)
- MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1205 | 1312 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 54.1% | — |
| IFEval | 77.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Amazon Nova Lite: 37.4 (#217)
- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1234 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 69.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Amazon Nova Lite: 42.1 (#237)
- MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1229 | 1343 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1197 | 1298 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1199 | 1335 |
| WildBench | 75% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.9% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Amazon Nova Lite better than MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index. Amazon Nova Lite costs 9.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Amazon Nova Lite or MiniMax M1?

Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.

### Is Amazon Nova Lite or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 32.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 300K.

### How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Lite and MiniMax M1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Lite has 34 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.