# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.3 vs 39.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 42.5 to 36.9.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.06 / $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 262K.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 39.3 | 39.0 |
| Rank | 156 | 161 |
| Context | 262K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.16 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1370 | 1386 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
- Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1335 | 1364 |

## Math

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
- Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1355 | 1359 |

## Knowledge

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
- Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1354 | 1360 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |

## Multilingual

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1292 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1356 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1280 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1213 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1233 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1257 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1321 | 1372 |

## Instruction Following

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1317 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1312 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
- Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1324 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1327 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.3 vs 39.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Nova 2 Lite?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (39.6 vs 40.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

### How many benchmarks do Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nova 2 Lite share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.