# Gemma 2 9B vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 43.0 to 9.7.
- Gemma 2 9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 341 | 161 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | — | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1385 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1364 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | — |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1335 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 29.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Nova 2 Lite share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.