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Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 vs Nova 2 Lite

Nova 2 Lite leads the LLM Stats Score 25.4 to 21.5.

Moonshot AI · Amazon · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Nova 2 Lite leads the overall LLM Stats Score 25.4 to 21.5, ranking #175 overall.

In the 10 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nova 2 Lite wins 8; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Kimi K2-Instruct-0905

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Nova 2 Lite

  • overall performance matters — it scores 25.4 and ranks #175 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 8 of 10 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905
Moonshot AI
Nova 2 Lite
Amazon
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
21.5
#202
25.4
#175
Reasoning
21.8
#192
26.9
#157
Coding
9.6
#184
12.6
#156
Agents
-4.2
#197
4.7
#165
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 10
8 of 10
Input price
— / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
— / M
$2.50 / M
Context window
—
1,000,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905
Nova 2 Lite
Math
21.5#150
24.2#124
Tool use
6.4#156
11.3#124
Writing
11.7#67
20.8#16
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

29 reported for Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 · 19 for Nova 2 Lite

10 shared

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (MMLU-Pro, SWE-Bench Verified), while Nova 2 Lite is better at 8 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, LiveCodeBench, Multi-Challenge, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom, Terminal-Bench).

Nova 2 Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Oct 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nova 2 Lite specifies input context (1,000,000 tokens). Only Nova 2 Lite specifies output context (65,536 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Amazon
Nova 2 Lite
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Thu Oct 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Nova 2 Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 does not.

Nova 2 Lite can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nova 2 Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is licensed under MIT, while Nova 2 Lite uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905

MIT

Open weights

Nova 2 Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 was released on 2025-09-05, while Nova 2 Lite was released on 2025-12-02.

Nova 2 Lite is 3 months newer than Kimi K2-Instruct-0905.

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905

Sep 5, 2025

1.1 years ago

Nova 2 Lite

Dec 2, 2025

10 months ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 and Nova 2 Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905
✓ Preferred
Nova 2 Lite
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 vs Nova 2 Lite.

Which is better, Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 or Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite leads the LLM Stats Score 25.4 to 21.5. Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is made by Moonshot AI and Nova 2 Lite is made by Amazon. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 compare to Nova 2 Lite in benchmarks?

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 scores MATH-500: 97.4%, MMLU-Redux: 92.7%, IFEval: 89.8%, AutoLogi: 89.5%, MMLU: 89.5%. Nova 2 Lite scores AIME 2025: 91.0%, LongCodeBench: 84.0%, ScreenSpot: 83.3%, MMLU-Pro: 80.9%, GPQA: 79.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 and Nova 2 Lite?

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 supports an unknown number of tokens and Nova 2 Lite supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 and Nova 2 Lite?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (21.5 vs 25.4), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 and Nova 2 Lite?

Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is developed by Moonshot AI and Nova 2 Lite is developed by Amazon.

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