# Kimi K2.6 vs Nova 2 Lite

> Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 2.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/kimi-k2-6-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 scores higher in 8 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.6 leads 57.0 to 37.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 10.8% for Kimi K2.6 and 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.95 / $4 for Kimi K2.6.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Kimi K2.6 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 47.7 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 60 | 161 |
| Context | 262K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.95 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $4 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Kimi K2.6: 50.7 (#43)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1488 | 1385 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | — |
| SciCode | 53.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,093 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Kimi K2.6: 21.9 (#137)
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 12% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 6,205 | — |

## Reasoning

- Kimi K2.6: 40.5 (#55)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1470 | 1364 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.2% | — |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 2.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | — |
| DTBench | 90.9% | — |
| LMCA | 37.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.05 | — |

## Math

- Kimi K2.6: 57.0 (#41)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1475 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 57.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 25.6% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 16% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Kimi K2.6: 54.0 (#54)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.8% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1491 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | — |

## Multimodal

- Kimi K2.6: 31.6 (#103)
- Nova 2 Lite: —

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1283 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 3.9% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 21.7% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | — |

## Multilingual

- Kimi K2.6: 54.9 (#37)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1446 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1521 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1471 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1450 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1443 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1427 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1446 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1464 | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Kimi K2.6: 76.3 (#43)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1451 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#52)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1468 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Kimi K2.6: 68.5 (#26)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1434 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1453 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1725 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1202 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Kimi K2.6 better than Nova 2 Lite?

Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 2.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.6 lists at $0.95 and $4.

### Is Kimi K2.6 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Kimi K2.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.7 versus 40.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

### How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and Nova 2 Lite share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.