# MiniMax-M2 vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 36.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 1.6× 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/minimax-m2-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 15

## Summary

- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2 scores higher in 1 category and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Nova 2 Lite leads 26.4 to 18.6.
- MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 36.9 | 39.0 |
| Rank | 201 | 161 |
| Context | 205K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2: 39.1 (#151)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1370 | 1386 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 61% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1297 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2: 24.9 (#102)
- Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 30% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 160.6 | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2: 18.6 (#256)
- Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1357 | 1364 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 14.8% | — |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2: 34.6 (#158)
- Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1350 | 1359 |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2: 36.3 (#160)
- Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1336 | 1360 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2: 45.6 (#165)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1314 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1367 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1336 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1366 | 1343 |
| LMArena Russian | 1332 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1326 | 1372 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1284 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M2: 70.4 (#160)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1329 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#148)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1332 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2: 53.3 (#157)
- Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1362 | 1338 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2 better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 36.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2 or Nova 2 Lite?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is MiniMax-M2 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2 and Nova 2 Lite share?

15 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2 has 21 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.