Model comparison
Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Nova 2 Lite
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher in 9 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads 49.2 to 26.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 13.5% for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
Side by side
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | |
| Noometry Index | 52.3 | 39.0 |
| Released | 2025-12-17 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Max output | 66K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 59 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.5 (#35), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1460 | 1386 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.4% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 75.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1439 | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 72.7% | — |
| GSO | 9.8% | — |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,367 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.6 (#27), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| τ²-bench Airline | 82.5% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 27.3% | — |
| τ²-bench Retail | 76.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Telecom | 91.2% | — |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | — |
| BALROG | 48.1% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1198 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 3,635 | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 49.2 (#35), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1465 | 1364 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | — |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 83.1% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 40% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 26% | — |
| DTBench | 89.1% | — |
| LMCA | 43.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.83 | — |
| ForecastBench | 58.5 | — |
Math Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.4 (#42), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1472 | 1359 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 51.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 67.6% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 95.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 15% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 35.6% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 4.2% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 58.8 (#30), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 13.5% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1461 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 89.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.3 (#15), Nova 2 Lite: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1285 | — |
| GeoBench | 88% | — |
| VPCT | 72.6% | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 0% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1413 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.9 (#26), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1458 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1510 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1478 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1497 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1488 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1443 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1480 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1470 | 1372 |
Instruction Following Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 75.8 (#52), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1437 | 1335 |
Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#63), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1452 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.6 (#44), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1466 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1457 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1471 | 1338 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Nova 2 Lite?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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; Gemini 3 Flash Preview lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.5 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Nova 2 Lite share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.