Compare / Qwen3-8B vs Nova 2 Lite
Qwen3-8B vs Nova 2 Lite
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 22 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 22 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs Amazon, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite? The short answer
Pick Nova 2 Lite if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.4 against 7.3). Pick Qwen3-8B if cost matters more: it costs 4.2 times less per token.
- Qwen3-8B is cheaper: $0.20 against $0.85 per million tokens, 4.2 times less.
- Nova 2 Lite scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.4 against 7.3.
- Nova 2 Lite is newer: released 29 Oct 2025, against 28 Apr 2025 for Qwen3-8B.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-8B does better for writing and sticking to the facts; Nova 2 Lite for reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-8B | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.12 in · $0.46 out | $0.30 in · $2.50 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.20 | $0.85 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.85 (Amazon Bedrock) |
| Intelligence Index | 7.3 | 13.4 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 217 |
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Released | 28 Apr 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 | Qwen3-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 211 · 138 of 243 measured | 7.3thinking reasoning | 13.4high reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 183 · 105 of 231 measured | 58.9%thinking reasoning | 81.1%high reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 220 · 142 of 242 measured | 3.9%thinking reasoning | 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 30 · 58 of 81 measured | 42.6%bfcl fc | 27.1%bfcl fc |
| Irrelevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 38 · 40 of 81 measured | 82.3%bfcl prompt | 82.1%bfcl fc |
| Memory · BFCL% correct, higher is better 40 · 73 of 81 measured | 14.6%bfcl fc | 2.4%bfcl fc |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 162 · 190 of 230 measured | 28.0no reasoning | 23.5no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 200 of 230 measured | 17.0%no reasoning | 45.0%thinking reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 60 · 108 of 230 measured | 0.36no reasoning | 0.35no reasoning |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results | ||
| Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 9 · 10 of 104 measured | 4.8% | 5.1% |
| Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 17 · 45 of 104 measured | 99.9% | 99.6% |
Show all 22 results (11 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-8B | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 6 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 122 · 95 of 130 measured | 2.2%thinking reasoning | 16.1%high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 94 of 131 measured | 9.0thinking reasoning | 23.0high reasoning |
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 165 · 50 of 195 measured | 33.5%thinking reasoning | 70.7%high reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 222 · 139 of 233 measured | 0.0%no reasoning | 60.3%high reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 173 · 100 of 190 measured | 2.3%no reasoning | 17.4%medium reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 142 · 76 of 193 measured | 27.8%thinking reasoning | 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 23 · 71 of 81 measured | 41.8%bfcl fc | 2.1%bfcl fc |
| Relevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 8 · 49 of 81 measured | 93.8%bfcl fc | 75.0%bfcl fc |
| Single-turn calls (curated) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 14 · 27 of 81 measured | 88.6%bfcl prompt | 87.0%bfcl fc |
| Single-turn calls (user-contributed) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 9 · 7 of 81 measured | 80.5%bfcl fc | 80.8%bfcl fc |
| Web search · BFCL% correct, higher is better 35 · 42 of 81 measured | 13.5%bfcl prompt | 5.0%bfcl fc |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-8B better than Nova 2 Lite?
Pick Nova 2 Lite if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.4 against 7.3). Pick Qwen3-8B if cost matters more: it costs 4.2 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-8B is cheaper: $0.20 against $0.85 per million tokens, 4.2 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-8B ranks 128 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, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite ranks 116 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 169 for Qwen3-8B.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-8B ranks 159 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 169 for Nova 2 Lite.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Qwen3-8B ranks 6 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 73 for Nova 2 Lite.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-8B or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite: 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-8B.
Run Qwen3-8B 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.