# Llama 3.1-70B vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-70B costs 2.1× 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/llama-3-1-70b-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-70B scores higher in 1 category and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Nova 2 Lite leads 37.5 to 13.5.
- Llama 3.1-70B is cheaper at $0.40 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- Llama 3.1-70B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 29.6 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 308 | 161 |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.40 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-70B: 30.3 (#296)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1260 | 1385 |
| WeirdML | 9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 46.1% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 54.8% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-70B: 25.1 (#112)
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| TheAgentCompany | 6.9% | — |
| BALROG | 27.9% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-70B: 21.6 (#220)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1241 | 1364 |
| DTBench | 60% | — |
| LMCA | 14.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 125.92 | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-70B: 13.5 (#304)
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1252 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 3.6% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 21% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 36.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-70B: 24.2 (#269)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1209 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 44.2% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 65.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 42.6% | — |
| MMLU | 80.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-70B: 38.8 (#225)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1219 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1215 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1261 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1222 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1132 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1140 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1234 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1253 | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-70B: 65.3 (#223)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1231 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 82.1% | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-70B: 37.6 (#214)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1241 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-70B: 35.4 (#267)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1261 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1232 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1256 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 784 | — |
| WildBench | 75.8% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-70B better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-70B costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-70B or Nova 2 Lite?

Llama 3.1-70B is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Llama 3.1-70B or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-70B and Nova 2 Lite share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-70B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.