# Nova 2 Lite vs Qwen3.5 35B-A3B

> Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/nova-2-lite-vs-qwen3-5-35b-a3b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Nova 2 Lite scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B in 6 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Nova 2 Lite leads 40.7 to 33.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite and 10.5% for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B.
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.25 / $2 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 42.0 |
| Rank | 161 | 123 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.25 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $2 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 33.8 (#251)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1385 | 1410 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1254 |
| SciCode | — | 29.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: —

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 24.6 (#161)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1364 | 1400 |
| CritPt | — | 0.6% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 10% |
| DTBench | — | 80% |
| LMCA | — | 29.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 142.52 |

## Math

- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 39.9 (#97)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1404 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 56% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 70% |

## Knowledge

- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 47.8 (#79)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | 10.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1358 | 1408 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 83.5% |

## Multilingual

- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 50.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1337 | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1364 | 1457 |
| LMArena French | 1381 | 1412 |
| LMArena German | 1343 | 1367 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1271 | 1325 |
| LMArena Korean | 1284 | 1356 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1376 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1373 | 1392 |

## Instruction Following

- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 72.8 (#128)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1335 | 1379 |

## Long Context

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 42.4 (#127)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1335 | 1389 |

## Writing & Preference

- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 57.9 (#124)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1395 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1291 | 1346 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1338 | 1390 |

## FAQ

### Is Nova 2 Lite better than Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $2 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

### Is Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 33.8 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 35B-A3B share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nova 2 Lite has 19 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B has 28.