Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads Nova 2 Lite on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 29.7 to 13.4, and Nova 2 Lite costs 4.8x less per output token ($2.50 vs $12.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 31 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 31 shared
Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: which to pick
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a coding score, 32.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova 2 Lite has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Nova 2 Lite for output tokens 4.8x cheaper ($2.50 vs $12.00 per million).
Model ANova 2 LiteAmazonNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle32.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.99 per solved task
- Shared results
- 31
- Nova 2 Lite only
- 0
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview only
- 100
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads, 29.7 against 13.4.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a AA Agentic Index result, 8.2.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a GPQA Diamond result, 95.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a AIME result, 98.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a MMLU Pro result, 91.0%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a Design Arena: websites result, 1234.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite $0.0015, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $0.0080 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has the number, $0.99.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nova 2 Lite not benchmarked, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 32.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 27.1 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AA Coding Index: Nova 2 Lite 23.0 against Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 68.8, 45.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nova 2 Lite $2.50 against Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $12.00 per million output tokens, 4.8x apart.
- Context window
- Nova 2 Lite takes 1M tokens, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 1.05M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Nova 2 Lite | Bars | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 31 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1447 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| AA Coding Index | 23.0 | 68.8 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.5% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.5% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.3% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 6.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 53.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 80.2% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 22.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 72.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MirrorCode | Not measured | 8.9% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 236.3 | 1160.6 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1385 | 1484 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1394 | 1487 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1438 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1490 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1481 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.4 | 29.7 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index24 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 8.2 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1125 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1068 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1093 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1048 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1236 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | Not measured | 1114 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | Not measured | 1153 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1066 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 20.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 60.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 27.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 95.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 35.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| METR time horizons | Not measured | 77.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 57.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | Not measured | 47.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| PostTrainBench | Not measured | 22.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | $911 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 95.5% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 20.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 94.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 94.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 98.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 77.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 79.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 51.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 34.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| EBR-bench | Not measured | 14.3% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1364 | 1485 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1359 | 1483 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1385 | 1480 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1311 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1316 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 98.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 95.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 59.6% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 26.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1359 | 1486 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1369 | 1478 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 91.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.5% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.9% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 96.4% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 73.5% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1382 | 1497 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1386 | 1486 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1359 | 1487 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1369 | 1459 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1234 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1227 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1203 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1209 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1234 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1231 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1285 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1270 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index017
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 48.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 76.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 77.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 82.0% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 97.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 53.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 20.8% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 26.7% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| ExploitBench | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| CL-bench Life | Not measured | 16.9% | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1480 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1335 | 1466 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1292 | 1482 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1296 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1385 | 1478 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1337 | 1476 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1364 | 1527 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: German | 1343 | 1490 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1273 | 1491 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1281 | 1455 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: French | 1381 | 1487 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1375 | 1481 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1342 | 1497 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1327 | 1498 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1338 | 1487 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1335 | 1482 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1318 | 1481 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1309 | 1465 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1287 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1364 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1304 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1322 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1345 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1330 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1324 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| LMArena Document | Not measured | 1444 | Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nova 2 Lite$0.0015Fits in one request
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview$0.0080Fits in one request
Nova 2 Lite costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nova 2 Lite$0.022Fits in one request
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview$0.136Fits in one request
Nova 2 Lite costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nova 2 Lite$0.085Fits in one request
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview$0.520Fits in one request
Nova 2 Lite costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Amazon Nova 2 Lite | Google Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Amazon | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 2, 2025 | February 19, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $12.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 32.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.99 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nova 2 Lite better than Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview for coding?
Only Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a coding score, 32.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova 2 Lite has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova 2 Lite for output tokens 4.8x cheaper ($2.50 vs $12.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
Nova 2 Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $2.00 and $12.00. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview only.
Which has the bigger context window, Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Nova 2 Lite's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.