LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Nova Lite Comparison

Comparing LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Nova Lite across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Nova Lite is better at 0 benchmarks.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Mar 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Nova Lite costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($0.30/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.06/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.24/1M tokens).

In conclusion, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is more expensive than Nova Lite.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers

Sat Mar 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Input tokens$0.30

Output tokens$1.20

Best providerMeituan

Nova Lite

Input tokens$0.06

Output tokens$0.24

Best providerAWS Bedrock

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Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Nova Lite accepts 300,000 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601's 128,000 tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Nova Lite is limited to 2,048 tokens.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Input128,000 tokens

Output128,000 tokens

Nova Lite

Input300,000 tokens

Output2,048 tokens

Sat Mar 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Nova Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 does not.

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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Text

Images

Audio

Video

Nova Lite

Text

Images

Audio

Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, while Nova Lite uses a proprietary license.

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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

MIT

Open weights

Nova Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 was released on 2026-01-14, while Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 14 months newer than Nova Lite.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

1 months ago

1.2yr newer

Nova Lite

Nov 20, 2024

1.3 years ago

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

Provider Availability

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is available from Meituan. Nova Lite is available from Bedrock. The availability of providers can affect quality of the model and reliability.