Model Comparison
Claude 3 Opus vs Nova LiteWhich is better in 2026?
Claude 3 Opus shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Nova Lite is 285.7x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Claude 3 Opus vs Nova Lite — which is better?
Claude 3 Opus (by Anthropic) and Nova Lite (by Amazon) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, MMLU), while Nova Lite is better at 2 benchmarks (HumanEval, MATH). Claude 3 Opus shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
On price, Nova Lite is roughly 285.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Nova Lite also accepts a larger context window (300,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Claude 3 Opus if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 7 shared benchmarks
Choose Nova Lite if…
- cost matters — it's about 285.7x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 300,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2024
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, MMLU), while Nova Lite is better at 2 benchmarks (HumanEval, MATH).
Claude 3 Opus shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3 Opus ($15.00/1M tokens) is 250.0x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.06/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3 Opus ($75.00/1M tokens) is 312.5x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.24/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3 Opus is more expensive than Nova Lite.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Nova Lite accepts 300,000 input tokens compared to Claude 3 Opus's 200,000 tokens. Claude 3 Opus can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Nova Lite is limited to 2,048 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Claude 3 Opus and Nova Lite support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3 Opus
Nova Lite
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3 Opus was released on 2024-02-29, while Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20.
Nova Lite is 9 months newer than Claude 3 Opus.
Feb 29, 2024
2.3 years ago
Nov 20, 2024
1.6 years ago
8mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3 Opus is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Nova Lite is available from Bedrock.
Claude 3 Opus
Nova Lite
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Claude 3 Opus
View detailsAnthropic
Nova Lite
View detailsAmazon
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Opus and Nova Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Opus vs Nova Lite.