Model comparison
gpt-oss-20b vs Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 1 category and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nova 2 Lite leads 54.1 to 35.8.
- gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- gpt-oss-20b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 39.0 |
| Released | 2025-08-05 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 16K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.018 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.09 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 34 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 37.1 (#185), Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1307 | 1386 |
| SciCode | 34.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 40.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 566.05 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 9.2 (#146), Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 3.4% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 18.8 (#251), Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1274 | 1364 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.2% | — |
| CritPt | 1.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 4% | — |
| DTBench | 68% | — |
| LMCA | 14.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 137.81 | — |
Math gpt-oss-20b leads
gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#93), Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1317 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 65.3% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 56.5% | — |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#186), Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1258 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 60.8% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 74% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 59.4% | — |
Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 42.4 (#192), Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1269 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1311 | 1364 |
| LMArena German | 1249 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1245 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1239 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1279 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1267 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | — | 1381 |
Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 62.0 (#235), Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1236 | 1335 |
| IFEval | 73.2% | — |
Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#203), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1251 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
gpt-oss-20b: 35.8 (#260), Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1288 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1201 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 666 | — |
| WildBench | 73.7% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is gpt-oss-20b better than Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Nova 2 Lite?
gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Is gpt-oss-20b or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 37.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Nova 2 Lite share?
16 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.