# Dolly 2.0-12b vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.5 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/dolly-2-0-12b-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 9

## Summary

- They share 9 benchmarks with published results for both. Dolly 2.0-12b scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nova 2 Lite leads 53.9 to 15.2.
- Dolly 2.0-12b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Databricks | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 25.5 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 342 | 161 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | — | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 23.4 (#332)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 776 | 1385 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Dolly 2.0-12b: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 15.3 (#316)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 804 | 1364 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 89.67 | — |
| HellaSwag | 70.8% | — |
| PIQA | 75.4% | — |
| WinoGrande | 61.8% | — |

## Math

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 27.3 (#251)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 871 | 1359 |

## Knowledge

- Dolly 2.0-12b: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1358 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 39.6% | — |
| BoolQ | 56.3% | — |
| MMLU | 26.2% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 39.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 17.4 (#296)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 836 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 836 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | — | 1381 |
| LMArena German | — | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 38.7 (#304)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 814 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- Dolly 2.0-12b: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Dolly 2.0-12b: 15.2 (#311)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Dolly 2.0-12b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 851 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 864 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 740 | 1338 |

## FAQ

### Is Dolly 2.0-12b better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.5 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Dolly 2.0-12b or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 23.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Dolly 2.0-12b and Nova 2 Lite share?

9 benchmarks have published results for both models. Dolly 2.0-12b has 17 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.