Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Nova 2 Lite
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 4.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 9 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 37.5.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 61.9 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 128K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1513 | 1385 |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1495 | 1364 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80.5% | — |
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 165.03 | — |
Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1510 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 2.9% | — |
Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1540 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Nova 2 Lite: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1289 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1522 | 1364 |
| LMArena Russian | 1451 | 1343 |
| LMArena French | — | 1381 |
| LMArena German | — | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1284 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1373 |
Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1495 | 1335 |
Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1498 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1474 | 1338 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Nova 2 Lite?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 39.7 on the Noometry Index. Nova 2 Lite costs 4.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 40.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Nova 2 Lite share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.