Model comparison
Nova 2 Lite vs Sonar
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
PerplexitySummary
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Nova 2 Lite leads 27.5 to 21.1.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Nova 2 Lite | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 38.5 |
| Released | 2025-12-01 | 2024-01-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Max output | 64K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.50 | $1 |
| Results tracked | 19 | 7 |
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Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1385 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1364 | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |
Math Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1359 | — |
Knowledge Not comparable
Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1358 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1337 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1364 | — |
| LMArena French | 1381 | — |
| LMArena German | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1271 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1284 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1373 | — |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1335 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1335 | — |
Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads
Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1362 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1291 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1338 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Nova 2 Lite better than Sonar?
Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Sonar?
Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Sonar lists at $1 and $1.
Is Nova 2 Lite or Sonar better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Nova 2 Lite and Sonar share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nova 2 Lite has 19 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.