# Nova 2 Lite vs Qwen3.5 27B

> Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/nova-2-lite-vs-qwen3-5-27b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Nova 2 Lite scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.5 27B in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3.5 27B leads 59.5 to 54.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite and 12.1% for Qwen3.5 27B.
- Both cost about the same: $0.30 input and $2.50 output per million tokens.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Qwen3.5 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.0 | 41.4 |
| Rank | 161 | 127 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $2.40 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 38.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1386 | 1427 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1357 |
| WeirdML | — | 39.5% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 349.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
- Qwen3.5 27B: —

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 201.98 |

## Reasoning

- Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 26.6 (#116)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1364 | 1414 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 47.9% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 45.5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.4% |
| LMCA | — | 34% |

## Math

- Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 36.8 (#103)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1428 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 56.7% |

## Knowledge

- Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 37.4 (#149)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | 12.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1360 | 1428 |

## Multimodal

- Nova 2 Lite: —
- Qwen3.5 27B: 38.7 (#56)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1240 |

## Multilingual

- Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 51.0 (#112)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1337 | 1390 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1364 | 1478 |
| LMArena French | 1381 | 1409 |
| LMArena German | 1343 | 1393 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1273 | 1345 |
| LMArena Korean | 1284 | 1359 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1389 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1372 | 1408 |

## Instruction Following

- Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 73.7 (#114)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1335 | 1393 |

## Long Context

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#103)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1335 | 1413 |

## Writing & Preference

- Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
- Qwen3.5 27B: 59.5 (#106)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1409 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1291 | 1362 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1338 | 1410 |

## FAQ

### Is Nova 2 Lite better than Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.5 27B better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 38.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

### How many benchmarks do Nova 2 Lite and Qwen3.5 27B share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nova 2 Lite has 19 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 27B has 28.