# Nova 2 Lite vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/nova-2-lite-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nova 2 Lite scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 37.5.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.

## Snapshot

| | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 161 | 22 |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $2 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $6 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1385 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1364 | 1496 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 40% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 156.41 |

## Math

- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1499 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 100% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |

## Knowledge

- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1358 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Nova 2 Lite: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1337 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1364 | 1538 |
| LMArena French | 1381 | 1503 |
| LMArena German | 1343 | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1271 | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | 1284 | 1461 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1481 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1373 | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1335 | 1479 |

## Long Context

- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1335 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1291 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1338 | 1489 |

## FAQ

### Is Nova 2 Lite better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.8 Max?

Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

### Is Nova 2 Lite or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 40.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Nova 2 Lite and Qwen3.8 Max share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nova 2 Lite has 19 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.