# Gemma 3 27B vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-27b-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 2 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Nova 2 Lite leads 40.7 to 22.5.
- Gemma 3 27B is cheaper at $0.08 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 30.8 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 284 | 161 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.08 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.16 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 27B: 22.5 (#334)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1322 | 1385 |
| Aider Polyglot | 4.9% | — |
| SciCode | 21.2% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 39.9% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 27B: 25.1 (#110)
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 29.5% | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 27B: 16.7 (#301)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1364 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.4% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 43.8% | — |
| DTBench | 52.5% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 51.5% | — |
| LMCA | 12.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 130.04 | — |
| LiveBench | 50% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 27B: 25.9 (#265)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 22.5% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 55.4% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 74% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 27B: 25.5 (#261)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1304 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.7% | — |
| Confabulations | 40.3% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 27B: 32.6 (#100)
- Nova 2 Lite: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1164 | — |
| GeoBench | 52% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 27B: 46.9 (#155)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1334 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1346 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1368 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1362 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1308 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1349 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1349 | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 27B: 70.6 (#160)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1321 | 1335 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 74.9% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#293)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1333 | 1335 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 33.3% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 27B: 52.5 (#168)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1358 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1346 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1345 | 1338 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 79.9% | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1266 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 34.6% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 27B better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Nova 2 Lite?

Gemma 3 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Gemma 3 27B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 22.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Nova 2 Lite share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.