Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-3.5 Turbo
Nova Lite 1.0 leads GPT-3.5 Turbo on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 6.7 to 5.5, and Nova Lite 1.0 costs 6.3x less per output token ($0.24 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 4 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nova Lite 1.0 or GPT-3.5 Turbo: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Nova Lite 1.0 for output tokens 6.3x cheaper ($0.24 vs $1.50 per million) and a larger context window (300K against 16K tokens).
- Shared results
- 4
- Nova Lite 1.0 only
- 37
- GPT-3.5 Turbo only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 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
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Nova Lite 1.0
Nova Lite 1.0 leads, 6.7 against 5.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GPT-3.5 Turbo has a GPQA Diamond result, 30.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nova Lite 1.0
Nova Lite 1.0 takes 300K tokens against 16K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nova Lite 1.0
Nova Lite 1.0 $0.0002, GPT-3.5 Turbo $0.0013 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nova Lite 1.0 not benchmarked, GPT-3.5 Turbo not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 13.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run): Nova Lite 1.0 43.3% against GPT-3.5 Turbo 29.7%, 13.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nova Lite 1.0 $0.24 against GPT-3.5 Turbo $1.50 per million output tokens, 6.3x apart.
- Context window
- Nova Lite 1.0 takes 300K tokens, GPT-3.5 Turbo 16K.
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 Lite 1.0 | Bars | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 0 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 10.7 | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 16.7% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1239 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1241 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 0.0% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.7 | 5.5 | Nova Lite 1.0 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 17.5% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 30.6% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.3% | 29.7% | Nova Lite 1.0 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| BIG-Bench Hard | Not measured | 61.6% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1220 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1201 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1226 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 7.0 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 7.0% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| GSM8K | Not measured | 57.8% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1227 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1235 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.4% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 59.0% | 46.2% | Nova Lite 1.0 |
| MMLU | 77.0% | 68.5% | Nova Lite 1.0 |
| LMArena Text: science | 1232 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1213 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1238 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1219 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 34.1% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 19.0% | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 48.5% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 9.7% | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo measured |
| LMArena Text | 1229 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1205 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1197 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 990 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1243 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1208 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1225 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1229 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1153 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1153 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1238 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1226 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1216 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1199 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1234 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1211 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1176 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 999 | Not measured | Only Nova Lite 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Lite 1.0 | GPT-3.5 Turbo | 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 Lite 1.0 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nova Lite 1.0 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nova Lite 1.0 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 Lite 1.0 | OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Amazon | OpenAI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 5, 2024 | May 28, 2023 |
| Context window | 300K | 16K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.06 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.24 | $1.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nova Lite 1.0 better than GPT-3.5 Turbo for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova Lite 1.0 for output tokens 6.3x cheaper ($0.24 vs $1.50 per million) and a larger context window (300K against 16K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Nova Lite 1.0 or GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Nova Lite 1.0 costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; GPT-3.5 Turbo costs $0.50 and $1.50. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Nova Lite 1.0 or GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Nova Lite 1.0, with 300K tokens against 16K.
How many benchmarks is the Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-3.5 Turbo comparison based on?
4 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Nova Lite 1.0's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and GPT-3.5 Turbo's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.