Nova 2 Lite vs Kimi K3
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Kimi-K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,362.5292% of row best · rating · nova-2-lite; 95% CI [1356.44886287, 1368.59662424]; votes 12117; rank 178 | 1,476.31100% of row best · rating · kimi-k3-max; 95% CI [1470.86166728, 1481.76254962]; votes 17895; rank 16 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 0 benchmark wins | 1 benchmark winOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Nova 2 Lite | Kimi-K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Amazon | Moonshot AI |
| Family | Nova 2 | Kimi K3 |
| Model | Nova 2 Lite | Kimi-K3 |
| Version | Nova 2 Lite | Kimi-K3 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2025-12-02 | 2026-07-16 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-10-01 | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video, Document | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000K | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | Unknown | 2.8T |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 104B |
| License | Unknown | other |
| Open weights | No | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | Yes |
| Provider access | Amazon Bedrock (Standard) | Deepinfra (Standard), Fireworks Ai (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, prompt-caching, tools, vision | chat, generation, reasoning |
14 comparable fields · 11 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Nova 2 Lite Capabilities
Kimi K3 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs | Kimi-K2.6Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs | Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek | cross-developer peerstext |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text, video |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Nova 2 LiteAmazon | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text, video |
Nova 2 LiteAmazon | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Nova 2 Lite vs Kimi K3 FAQs
Is Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Nova 2 Lite and Kimi K3, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
Nova 2 Lite is $0.30 and Kimi K3 is $2.85 per million tokens, so Nova 2 Lite is cheaper on this metric. Nova 2 Lite is $2.50 and Kimi K3 is $14.25 per million tokens, so Nova 2 Lite is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
Kimi K3 has the larger sourced context window. Nova 2 Lite supports 1,000K and Kimi K3 supports 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3 be self-hosted?+
Kimi K3 is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Nova 2 Lite is not marked open weight; Kimi K3 is open weight.
Can Nova 2 Lite and Kimi K3 understand images?+
Nova 2 Lite is documented with image input; Kimi K3 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Nova 2 Lite is 66K and Kimi K3 is —.
Do Nova 2 Lite and Kimi K3 support reasoning and tool use?+
Nova 2 Lite: tool calling and image input. Kimi K3: reasoning and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
Nova 2 Lite has 1 sourced provider route; Kimi K3 has 5, so Kimi K3 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Nova 2 Lite or Kimi K3?+
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.