Compare / Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 18 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.8 Flash? The short answer
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper: $0.85 against $1.50 per million tokens, 43% less.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 40.9 against 13.4.
- On our business benchmarks, Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
At a glance
| Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.30 in · $2.50 out | $0.75 in · $3.75 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.85 | $1.50 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.85 (Amazon Bedrock) | $0.75 (Google AI Studio) |
| Intelligence Index | 13.4 | 40.9 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | 61 |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 210 | 187 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Developer based in | the US | 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 models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live | not measured | 11 of 19 |
| Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is | not measured | 11 of 18 |
| Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending | not measured | 7 of 18 |
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 130 of 161 | 30 of 161 |
| Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects | not measured | 11 of 51 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 112 of 195 | 12 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 168 of 187 | 2 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 76 of 153 | 13 of 153 |
| Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) | not measured | 6 of 21 |
From our research
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | Nova 2 Lite | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,380 | 1,477 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Business, management and financeArena rating | 1,351 | 1,482 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Creative writingArena rating | 1,269 | 1,482 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Expert promptsArena rating | 1,354 | 1,529 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Instruction followingArena rating | 1,327 | 1,488 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,335 | 1,492 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Writing, literature and languageArena rating | 1,298 | 1,486 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score | 23.0 | 76.3 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 13.4 | 40.9 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 81.1% | 95.3% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 11.6% | 47.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 60.3% | 84.0% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Output speedtokens per second | 210 | 187 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks | 16.1% | 87.6% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Time to first answer tokenseconds | 0.83 | 11.2 |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Requested-length error% off the requested word count | 45.0% | 13.0% |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Style adherencescore from 0 to 1 | 0.35 | 0.34 |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Writing scorescore out of 100 | 23.5 | 78.5 |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is Nova 2 Lite better than Gemini 3.8 Flash?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Nova 2 Lite costs $0.85 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.50 for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
Which is faster, Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Nova 2 Lite writes about 210 tokens a second on its usual API, against 187 for Gemini 3.8 Flash (Artificial Analysis).
Run Nova 2 Lite and Gemini 3.8 Flash on your own prompt
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