# gpt-oss-20b vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 32.5 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 24× 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/gpt-oss-20b-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 1 category and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nova 2 Lite leads 53.9 to 35.5.
- gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- gpt-oss-20b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 32.5 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 255 | 161 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.018 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.09 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#192)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1306 | 1385 |
| SciCode | 34.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 40.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 566.05 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- gpt-oss-20b: 9.3 (#154)
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 3.4% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- gpt-oss-20b: 19.3 (#261)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1274 | 1364 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.2% | — |
| CritPt | 1.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 4% | — |
| DTBench | 68% | — |
| LMCA | 14.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 137.82 | — |

## Math

- gpt-oss-20b: 39.4 (#103)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1317 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 65.3% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 56.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#195)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1258 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 60.8% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 74% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 59.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- gpt-oss-20b: 42.2 (#197)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1314 | 1364 |
| LMArena German | 1255 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1244 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1236 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1278 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1267 | 1373 |
| LMArena French | — | 1381 |

## Instruction Following

- gpt-oss-20b: 61.8 (#240)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1236 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 73.2% | — |

## Long Context

- gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#209)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1250 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- gpt-oss-20b: 35.5 (#265)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1287 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1201 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 666 | — |
| WildBench | 73.7% | — |

## FAQ

### Is gpt-oss-20b better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 32.5 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Nova 2 Lite?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is gpt-oss-20b or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 37.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

### How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Nova 2 Lite share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.