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Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 vs Nova 2 Lite

Nova 2 Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Moonshot AI · Amazon · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

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.

Based on current benchmark, 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

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 8 of 10 shared benchmarks
  • 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
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
Released
Sep 2025
Dec 2025
License
MIT
Proprietary

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

10 benchmarks

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.

Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind 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
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

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

11 months ago

Nova 2 Lite

Dec 2, 2025

8 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?Start an Issue discussion→

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 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. 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 benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities 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 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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