Compare / Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 vs Nova 2 Lite
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 vs Nova 2 Lite
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 24 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 24 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Amazon, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite? The short answer
Pick Nova 2 Lite if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.4 against 7.5). Pick Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 6.0 times less per token.
- Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.14 against $0.85 per million tokens, 6.0 times less.
- Nova 2 Lite scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.4 against 7.5.
- Nova 2 Lite is newer: released 29 Oct 2025, against 29 Jul 2025 for Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 does better for agents and tool use and writing; Nova 2 Lite for reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.090 in · $0.30 out | $0.30 in · $2.50 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.14 | $0.85 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.084 (StreamLake) | $0.85 (Amazon Bedrock) |
| Intelligence Index | 7.5 | 13.4 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 217 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Released | 29 Jul 2025 | 29 Oct 2025 (newer) |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 162 · 214 of 387 measured | 1,383 | 1,335 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 144 · 186 of 380 measured | 1,397 | 1,351 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 186 · 248 of 385 measured | 1,319 | 1,269 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 209 · 138 of 243 measured | 7.5 | 13.4high reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 172 · 105 of 231 measured | 65.9% | 81.1%high reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 173 · 142 of 242 measured | 6.9% | 11.6%high reasoning |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 3 results | ||
| Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 32 · 58 of 81 measured | 41.4%bfcl fc | 27.1%bfcl fc |
| Irrelevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 49 · 40 of 81 measured | 79.9%bfcl fc | 82.1%bfcl fc |
| Memory · BFCL% correct, higher is better 38 · 73 of 81 measured | 17.6%bfcl fc | 2.4%bfcl fc |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 163 · 190 of 230 measured | 27.9 | 23.5no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 57 · 200 of 230 measured | 13.0% | 45.0%thinking reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 187 · 108 of 230 measured | 0.31 | 0.35no reasoning |
Show all 24 results (12 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 192 of 338 measured | 1,395 | 1,352 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 164 · 199 of 387 measured | 1,367 | 1,327 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 176 · 235 of 386 measured | 1,342 | 1,298 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 168 · 50 of 195 measured | 33.1% | 70.7%high reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 191 · 139 of 233 measured | 26.3% | 60.3%high reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 147 · 100 of 190 measured | 6.1% | 17.4%medium reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 185 · 76 of 193 measured | 10.2% | 75.7%medium reasoning |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 5 results | ||
| Multi-turn tasks · BFCL% correct, higher is better 34 · 71 of 81 measured | 30.0%bfcl fc | 2.1%bfcl fc |
| Relevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 8 · 49 of 81 measured | 93.8%bfcl prompt | 75.0%bfcl fc |
| Single-turn calls (curated) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 9 · 27 of 81 measured | 88.9%bfcl prompt | 87.0%bfcl fc |
| Single-turn calls (user-contributed) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 22 · 7 of 81 measured | 78.4%bfcl prompt | 80.8%bfcl fc |
| Web search · BFCL% correct, higher is better 30 · 42 of 81 measured | 22.5%bfcl fc | 5.0%bfcl fc |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 better than Nova 2 Lite?
Pick Nova 2 Lite if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.4 against 7.5). Pick Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 6.0 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.14 against $0.85 per million tokens, 6.0 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 ranks 75 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 133 for Nova 2 Lite.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite ranks 116 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 159 for Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 ranks 140 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 169 for Nova 2 Lite.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite: 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507.
Run Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 and Nova 2 Lite on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.