Nova 2 Lite vs Gemma 4 12B

This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Nova 2 Lite and Gemma 4 12B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.

Only Nova 2 Lite has a directly sourced input price: $0.30 per million tokens. Only Nova 2 Lite has a directly sourced output price: $2.50 per million tokens.

Nova 2 Lite has the larger sourced context window. Nova 2 Lite supports 1,000K and Gemma 4 12B supports 262K.

There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.

Gemma 4 12B is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Nova 2 Lite is not marked open weight; Gemma 4 12B is open weight.

Nova 2 Lite is documented with image input; Gemma 4 12B is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.

Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Nova 2 Lite is 66K and Gemma 4 12B is —.

Nova 2 Lite: tool calling and image input. Gemma 4 12B: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.

Nova 2 Lite has 1 sourced provider route; Gemma 4 12B has 1, a tie.

There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.