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LongCat-Flash-Thinking vs Nova 2 Lite

LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite are closely matched at 28.5 and 25.1 on the LLM Stats Score. LongCat-Flash-Thinking is 1.6x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Amazon · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 28.5 and 25.1.

In the 8 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-Flash-Thinking wins 5; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, LongCat-Flash-Thinking is roughly 1.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Nova 2 Lite also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

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

Choose LongCat-Flash-Thinking

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 5 of 8 exact shared results
  • cost matters — it's about 1.6x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Nova 2 Lite

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Meituan
Nova 2 Lite
Amazon
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
28.5
#155
25.1
#181
Reasoning
28.6
#148
26.7
#165
Coding
13.7
#156
12.2
#167
Agents
12.9
#116
4.7
#173
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
5 of 8
3 of 8
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$2.50 / M
Context window
128,000
1,000,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Nova 2 Lite
Math
28.1#100
24.2#128
Tool use
15.7#100
11.2#131
Writing
18.5#27
20.7#16
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for LongCat-Flash-Thinking · 19 for Nova 2 Lite

8 shared

LongCat-Flash-Thinking outperforms in 5 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MMLU-Pro, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Telecom), while Nova 2 Lite is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, SWE-Bench Verified, Tau2 Retail).

LongCat-Flash-Thinking shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

LongCat-Flash-Thinking costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking ($0.30/1M tokens) costs the same as Nova 2 Lite ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking ($1.20/1M tokens) is 2.1x cheaper than Nova 2 Lite ($2.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Nova 2 Lite is more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Amazon
Nova 2 Lite
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$2.50
Best providerAWS Bedrock
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Nova 2 Lite accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking's 128,000 tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Nova 2 Lite is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Amazon
Nova 2 Lite
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Nova 2 Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking does not.

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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nova 2 Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking 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.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

MIT

Open weights

Nova 2 Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Thinking was released on 2025-09-22, while Nova 2 Lite was released on 2025-12-02.

Nova 2 Lite is 2 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Thinking.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

Sep 22, 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

Provider Availability

LongCat-Flash-Thinking is available from Meituan. Nova 2 Lite is available from Bedrock.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

Nova 2 Lite

bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $2.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking
✓ Preferred
Nova 2 Lite
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking vs Nova 2 Lite.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Thinking or Nova 2 Lite?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 28.5 and 25.1. LongCat-Flash-Thinking is made by Meituan 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 LongCat-Flash-Thinking compare to Nova 2 Lite in benchmarks?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking scores MATH-500: 99.2%, ZebraLogic: 95.5%, AIME 2024: 93.3%, AIME 2025: 90.6%, MMLU-Redux: 89.3%. Nova 2 Lite scores AIME 2025: 91.0%, LongCodeBench: 84.0%, ScreenSpot: 83.3%, MMLU-Pro: 80.9%, GPQA: 79.6%.

Is LongCat-Flash-Thinking cheaper than Nova 2 Lite?

Both models cost $0.30 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking supports 128K 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 LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (28.5 vs 25.1), context window (128K vs 1.0M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Nova 2 Lite?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking is developed by Meituan and Nova 2 Lite is developed by Amazon.

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