Model Comparison
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Nova LiteWhich is better in 2026?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Nova Lite is 8.5x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Nova Lite — which is better?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (by Meta) 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.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct outperforms in 8 benchmarks (ARC-C, BFCL, DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU), while Nova Lite is better at 1 benchmark (IFEval). Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Nova Lite is roughly 8.5x 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 Llama 3.1 405B Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 8 of 9 shared benchmarks
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Nova Lite if…
- cost matters — it's about 8.5x 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
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct outperforms in 8 benchmarks (ARC-C, BFCL, DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU), while Nova Lite is better at 1 benchmark (IFEval).
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 14.8x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.06/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 3.7x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.24/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct 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 Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Nova Lite is limited to 2,048 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Nova Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 405B Instruct does not.
Nova Lite can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Nova Lite
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Nova Lite uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20.
Nova Lite is 4 months newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Jul 23, 2024
2.0 years ago
Nov 20, 2024
1.7 years ago
4mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Bedrock, Together, Hyperbolic, Google, Replicate. Nova Lite is available from Bedrock.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Nova Lite
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Nova Lite
View detailsAmazon
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Nova Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Nova Lite.