Nova 2 Lite vs Nemotron Nano 9B v2
Nova 2 Lite and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 are closely matched at 25.4 and 18.4 on the LLM Stats Score.
Amazon · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Nova 2 Lite and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 25.4 and 18.4.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nova 2 Lite wins 2; 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 Nova 2 Lite
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
Choose Nemotron Nano 9B v2
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
19 reported for Nova 2 Lite · 6 for Nemotron Nano 9B v2
Nova 2 Lite outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Nemotron Nano 9B v2 is better at 1 benchmark (LiveCodeBench).
Nova 2 Lite shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
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).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Nova 2 Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nemotron Nano 9B v2 does not.
Nova 2 Lite can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Nova 2 Lite
Nemotron Nano 9B v2
License
Usage and distribution terms
Nova 2 Lite is licensed under a proprietary license, while Nemotron Nano 9B v2 uses NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement .
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
NVIDIA Open Model License Agreement
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Nova 2 Lite was released on 2025-12-02, while Nemotron Nano 9B v2 was released on 2025-08-18.
Nova 2 Lite is 4 months newer than Nemotron Nano 9B v2.
Dec 2, 2025
10 months ago
3mo newerAug 18, 2025
1.2 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Nemotron Nano 9B v2 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-09-01, while Nova 2 Lite's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Nemotron Nano 9B v2's training data extends to 2024-09-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nova 2 Lite's cutoff date.
—
Sep 2024
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Nova 2 Lite and Nemotron Nano 9B v2 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Nova 2 Lite vs Nemotron Nano 9B v2.