Amazon Nova Lite vs Amazon Nova Micro
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
Related topics (12)
Amazon Nova Lite by Amazon and Amazon Nova Micro by Amazon represent two of the frontier AI models analyzed in our comprehensive 2026 AI benchmark and LLM comparison. In this head-to-head evaluation, we examine API token pricing, context window specifications, inference speed (tokens per second), and empirical reasoning performance. From a pure economic perspective, Amazon Nova Micro holds a notable pricing advantage for token ingestion. On output generation, Amazon Nova Micro is more economical per million generated tokens. In data-heavy architectures requiring extensive repository or document analysis, Amazon Nova Lite provides an expanded memory horizon with 300K tokens. In latency-sensitive production environments, Amazon Nova Micro leads in tokens-per-second throughput, making it ideal for real-time conversational agents and high-concurrency workflows. Below is the complete empirical head-to-head breakdown across cost, speed, context, and capability matrices.
Switch & Compare Any Models
Select any AI models from our verified benchmark database to generate live side-by-side matrices.
Amazon Nova Lite
AWS High-Velocity MultimodalAmazon's lightning-fast multimodal foundation model engineered for cost-sensitive enterprise applications, real-time image parsing, and high-frequency workloads.
$0.06 / 1M
$0.24 / 1M
300K tokens
31.2%
Amazon Nova Micro
AWS Micro-Latency TextAmazon's fastest, lowest-cost text model delivering sub-200ms responses for search ranking, classification, and streaming conversational chat.
$0.04 / 1M
$0.14 / 1M
128K tokens
23%
Key Differences at a Glance
- Amazon Nova Micro is 1.7x cheaper for API usage (input + output tokens combined).
- Amazon Nova Lite has a larger context window (300K vs 128K tokens).
- Amazon Nova Micro is faster at 175 tok/s vs 135 tok/s.
- Amazon Nova Lite leads on SWE-bench coding (31.2% vs 23.0%).
| Feature | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Micro |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Composite reasoning & knowledge score (0-100) | 38 | 34 |
Provider | Amazon | Amazon |
Input Price Cost per million input tokens | $0.06 / 1M | $0.04 / 1M |
Output Price Cost per million output tokens | $0.24 / 1M | $0.14 / 1M |
Blended Price Weighted 7:2:1 cache:input:output per 1M | $0.05 / 1M | $0.03 / 1M |
Context Window Maximum input + output tokens | 300K tokens~450 A4 pages of text | 128K tokens~192 A4 pages of text |
Max Output Tokens Per single request | 8K | 8K |
Throughput Speed Tokens generated per second | 135 tok/s | 175 tok/s |
SWE-bench Verified Real-world software engineering | 31.2% | 23% |
GPQA Diamond Graduate-level reasoning | 42% | 33.5% |
Cached Input Price Prompt caching discount per 1M tokens | $0.01 / 1M | $0.01 / 1M |
Who Wins Where?
At-a-glance decision frameworkEmpirical Head-to-Head Benchmark Scores
Official evaluation metrics verified by independent third-party research labs.
Industry benchmark evaluating real-world GitHub issue resolution and multi-file debugging.
Challenging questions created by domain experts to test complex PhD-level reasoning.
Hardened reasoning and academic knowledge benchmark with reduced lucky-guess probability.
Crowdsourced human preference evaluation based on blind, head-to-head model battles.
Extremely difficult, closed-ended questions spanning the frontier of human expert knowledge.
Autonomous multi-step tasks executed inside a real command-line terminal environment.
Research-grade coding problems drawn from real scientific and numerical workloads.
Contamination-free competitive programming problems collected continuously over time.
American Invitational Mathematics Examination — multi-step Olympiad-level reasoning.
Accuracy when reasoning over very large inputs that fill the model context window.
Tokens emitted per second during active generation streaming.
Latency & Response Time
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Real-Time Interactive Token Cost Simulator
Adjust sliders to calculate projected monthly cloud API spending with prompt caching discounts.
Amazon Nova Lite · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Very generous 300K context window with full image and video comprehension
- Ultra-competitive pricing ($0.06 input per 1M tokens) integrated directly into Amazon Bedrock
- Deep integration with AWS enterprise security, KMS, and VPC endpoints
- Sub-300ms latency for real-time customer interactions
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Available exclusively through AWS Bedrock API
- Lower software engineering benchmark scores than Nova Pro
Amazon Nova Micro · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Sub-200ms time-to-first-token, ideal for streaming autocomplete and search routing
- Extreme cost efficiency ($0.035/1M input tokens)
- 128K context window for fast document scanning
- Native Bedrock Guardrails and security compliance
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Text-only (no vision support)
- Limited deep algorithmic reasoning capacity
Token Use & Task Economics
Estimated cost and token consumption to complete one representative agentic task.
| Metric | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Micro |
|---|---|---|
Cost per Task Estimated USD to finish one task | $0.06 | $0.03 |
Output Tokens / Task Tokens generated per task | 19K | 15K |
Reasoning Tokens / Task Thinking tokens burned per task | 0K | 0K |
Technical Specifications
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Feature | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Micro |
|---|---|---|
| Official API Model ID (SDK) | nova-lite | nova-micro |
| API Protocol | Amazon REST API (OpenAI-Compatible) | Amazon REST API (OpenAI-Compatible) |
| Release Date | 2024-12 | 2024-12 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | October 2024 | October 2024 |
| Architecture | High-Speed Multimodal Foundation Transformer | Ultra-Fast Text-Only Dense Transformer |
| Parameters | Confidential | Confidential |
| Enterprise Rate Limits (RPM / TPM) | 5,000 – 15,000 RPM (Production Tier) · 800,000 – 2,000,000 TPM | 5,000 – 15,000 RPM (Production Tier) · 800,000 – 2,000,000 TPM |
| Long-Context Tier (>128K/200K) | Flat rate ($0.06/1M in) across full 300K window | Flat rate ($0.035/1M in) across full 128K window |
| Prompt Cache Policy & TTL | Cached input at $0.015/1M tokens | Cached input at $0.009/1M tokens |
| Computer Use / GUI Agent | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) |
| MCP & Parallel Tool Calling | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema |
| Web Search Grounding & Sandbox | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools |
| Official Fine-Tuning Support | API Prompt Engineering & RAG Distillation | API Prompt Engineering & RAG Distillation |
| Multimodal Token Billing | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) · Vision (~258–765 tokens per image tile) · Video (~258–300 tokens/sec) | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) |
| Quantization & Min GPU VRAM | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) |
| Safety & Frontier Classification | Amazon Production Safety & Alignment Verified | Amazon Production Safety & Alignment Verified |
| Enterprise Compliance (ZDR/HIPAA/SOC2) | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier |
| Input Modalities | text, vision, video | text |
| Output Modalities | text | text |
Amazon Nova Lite vs Amazon Nova Micro: Quick Answers
Which is more intelligent, Amazon Nova Lite or Amazon Nova Micro?
Amazon Nova Lite is more intelligent. It scores 38 compared with 34 on the composite Intelligence Index.
Which model is faster?
Amazon Nova Micro is faster, generating 175 tokens per second compared with 135 tokens per second.
Which model is cheaper to run?
Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.03 per 1M tokens blended, compared with $0.05 (7:2:1 cache:input:output ratio).
Which model has lower latency?
Amazon Nova Micro has lower latency, with a time to first token of 0.18s compared with 0.28s.
Which model has a larger context window?
Amazon Nova Lite has a larger context window, supporting 300K tokens compared with 128K tokens.
Verdict
Verdict & Model Selection Recommendation: Choose Amazon Nova Lite if your priority is AWS enterprise workloads, automated customer support, document digitization, and video scene analysis. Its performance in demanding tasks justifies its operational token cost. Choose Amazon Nova Micro if your workflow prioritizes Real-time search reranking, intent classification, and high-volume data pipeline filtering. For large-scale batch processing or customer-facing conversational interfaces, its balance of speed and economics delivers superior ROI.
Frequently asked questions
How does Amazon Nova Lite compare to Amazon Nova Micro in API token pricing and cost per token?+
Amazon Nova Lite costs $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.24 per 1M output tokens, whereas Amazon Nova Micro costs $0.04 input and $0.14 output. Overall, Amazon Nova Micro is the more cost-effective model for high-volume API pipelines. Both models support prompt caching discounts of up to 90% for repeated prompt prefixes.
Which model has a larger context window: Amazon Nova Lite or Amazon Nova Micro?+
Amazon Nova Lite supports a context window of 300K tokens (~225k words), while Amazon Nova Micro supports 128K tokens (~96k words). Therefore, Amazon Nova Lite can process more textual data and document context in a single prompt.
Which AI model is better for software engineering and coding: Amazon Nova Lite or Amazon Nova Micro?+
Amazon Nova Lite scores 31.2% on SWE-bench Verified while Amazon Nova Micro scores 23%. For autonomous software engineering and multi-file debugging, Amazon Nova Lite holds the verified benchmark lead.
What is the difference in reasoning capability and extended thinking between Amazon Nova Lite and Amazon Nova Micro?+
Amazon Nova Lite is optimized for low-latency direct generation. In contrast, Amazon Nova Micro focuses on standard fast inference.
How does inference speed (tokens per second) compare between Amazon Nova Lite and Amazon Nova Micro?+
Amazon Nova Lite generates approximately 135 tokens per second, while Amazon Nova Micro delivers 175 tokens per second. In latency-sensitive production environments, Amazon Nova Micro provides faster time-to-first-token (TTFT) and higher streaming response velocity.
Can you implement a tiered LLM routing setup combining Amazon Nova Lite and Amazon Nova Micro to optimize costs?+
Yes! High-efficiency architectures route high-frequency routine classification and conversational tasks to Amazon Nova Micro to save operational costs, and dynamically escalate complex architectural queries or reasoning tasks to Amazon Nova Lite. This tiered routing pattern cuts overall API bills by up to 70%.
Understand key metrics like context window, token pricing, reasoning mode, and SWE-bench scores in our comprehensive AI glossary.
Related reading
- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite vs Amazon Nova Lite: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
- GPT-4.1 nano vs Amazon Nova Micro: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
- Aion-3.0 vs Aion-Mini: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
- Aion-3.0 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
- Aion-Mini vs Laguna XS 2.1: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
- Aya Expanse 32B vs Llama 3.2 90B Vision: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonCompare
Benchmark scores, token prices, and rate limits evolve rapidly as AI labs release model updates. Always verify current specifications and pricing on the official provider documentation.
Sources: GetInfoUs Independent AI Benchmarks & Official API Specs