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Model comparison

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Amazon against Google, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 2, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Amazon

Amazon Nova 2 Lite

Balanced

vs

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Balanced

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationAmazon Nova 2 LiteGemini 3.6 Flash
ProviderAmazonGoogle
TierBalancedBalanced
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverified66K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$0.75
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $2.50$3.75
WeightsClosedClosed
ParametersNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highminimal, low, medium, high
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video, audio, pdf
API model idamazon.nova-2-lite-v1:0gemini-3.6-flash
ReleasedDecember 2, 2025July 21, 2026
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-07Not verifiedUnverified78
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified48.6
HLE-Verified · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified51.2

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Amazon Nova 2 Lite: Bedrock Global Standard $0.30/$2.50 per MTok, cached input $0.075 and cache writes $0. Single-region $0.33/$2.75, cached $0.0825. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125. Grounding costs $0.03 per request separately. Snapshot: September 30, 2026 native offer file; regional routes, service tiers and customization have separate meters.

Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.

BalancedRecord checked October 2, 2026

Amazon Nova 2 Lite

Amazon’s hosted Nova 2 Lite reasoning model for everyday business workflows, with a 1M-token context window.

Best for

  • Document processing
  • Business automation
  • Bedrock integrations

Watch out

Extended thinking is optional and off by default. Low/medium/high controls apply when enabled; high forbids maxTokens, temperature and topP overrides. The model card advertises 64K output, but the high-thinking guide describes outputs exceeding 65K and sometimes reaching 128K, so no universal hard output cap is asserted. Reasoning tokens are billed as output. Use the route-specific US/EU/JP/global ID supported by your account; documents are inputs and text is generated.

BalancedRecord checked October 1, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google's balanced multimodal Flash tier with a 1M-token context.

Best for

  • Multimodal pipelines
  • High-volume processing
  • Video and audio input

Watch out

An earlier Flash model, still listed as stable. Google reports improvements on selected tasks for later releases; that does not establish a quality increase for every workload. Thinking includes minimal through high; computer use is Preview. Intro pricing doubles January 1, 2027.

When the cheaper one wins

Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper on output at $2.50 per million tokens against $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — about 1.5×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

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Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, parameter count.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Amazon Nova 2 Lite · Gemini 3.6 Flash

Common questions

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for input?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $0.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — roughly 2.5× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Amazon Nova 2 Lite: Bedrock Global Standard $0.30/$2.50 per MTok, cached input $0.075 and cache writes $0. Single-region $0.33/$2.75, cached $0.0825. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125. Grounding costs $0.03 per request separately. Snapshot: September 30, 2026 native offer file; regional routes, service tiers and customization have separate meters. Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.
Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for output?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $2.50 per million output tokens, against $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — roughly 1.5× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Amazon Nova 2 Lite: Bedrock Global Standard $0.30/$2.50 per MTok, cached input $0.075 and cache writes $0. Single-region $0.33/$2.75, cached $0.0825. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125. Grounding costs $0.03 per request separately. Snapshot: September 30, 2026 native offer file; regional routes, service tiers and customization have separate meters. Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.
Which has the larger context window, Amazon Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for Amazon Nova 2 Lite. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Amazon Nova 2 Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash support the same reasoning levels?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite exposes low, medium, high, while Gemini 3.6 Flash exposes minimal, low, medium, high.
Should I use Amazon Nova 2 Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Both are classified in our balanced tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. Amazon Nova 2 Lite is a candidate for document processing; Gemini 3.6 Flash is a candidate for multimodal pipelines. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Amazon Nova 2 Lite costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $0.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash — a 2.5x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1.05M against 1M for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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