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Model comparison

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs GLM 5.2

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

Amazon Nova 2 Lite: profile checked October 25, 2026GLM 5.2: profile checked October 25, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Amazon

Amazon Nova 2 Lite

Balanced

vs

Z.ai

GLM 5.2

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationAmazon Nova 2 LiteGLM 5.2
ProviderAmazonZ.ai
TierBalancedBalanced
Context window1M1M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverified131K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.30$1.40
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $2.50$4.40
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highnone, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext
LicenseNot verifiedUnverifiedMIT
API model idamazon.nova-2-lite-v1:0glm-5.2
ReleasedDecember 2, 2025June 16, 2026

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.

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 and writes $0. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; regional $0.165/$1.375. Global Flex cache reads $0.0375; regional $0.04125. Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125; regional $0.5775/$4.8125, cached $0.144375. Grounding is separately $0.03/request. Complete native offer published October 16, 2026; these token meters take effect October 1 and bill per 1K tokens, converted here to per million. Customization, provisioned capacity and account-specific routing remain separate.

GLM 5.2: Z.ai PAYG USD/MTok input/output $1.40/$4.40, cached input $0.26; cache storage remains limited-time free with no verified end date. Web Search is separately $0.01/use. Text-only hosted API advertises 1M context and max_tokens up to 131,072. MIT checkpoint config has 1,048,576 native positions; evaluation budgets do not change the hosted contract.

BalancedRecord checked October 25, 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.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked October 25, 2026

GLM 5.2

The previous GLM text-only generation, available as an MIT-licensed checkpoint and documented token-API model; GLM-5.3 uses the same base with newer post-training.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Reasoning
  • Cost-sensitive work

Watch out

Previous text-only generation; GLM-5.3 uses the same base with newer post-training, but direct token-API identity, Coding Plan routing and native weights remain separate. Current thinking docs accept none/minimal/low/medium/high/xhigh/max: none/minimal stop thinking, low/medium map to high, xhigh maps to max (default). These are not seven independent compute tiers. Exact total/active parameter counts remain unverified; shared-base wording alone is insufficient.

When the cheaper one wins

Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper on output at $2.50 per million tokens against $4.40 for GLM 5.2 — about 1.8×. 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 1 day 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 · GLM 5.2

Common questions

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs GLM 5.2

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

Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.2 cheaper for input?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $1.40 for GLM 5.2 — roughly 4.7× 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 and writes $0. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; regional $0.165/$1.375. Global Flex cache reads $0.0375; regional $0.04125. Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125; regional $0.5775/$4.8125, cached $0.144375. Grounding is separately $0.03/request. Complete native offer published October 16, 2026; these token meters take effect October 1 and bill per 1K tokens, converted here to per million. Customization, provisioned capacity and account-specific routing remain separate. GLM 5.2: Z.ai PAYG USD/MTok input/output $1.40/$4.40, cached input $0.26; cache storage remains limited-time free with no verified end date. Web Search is separately $0.01/use. Text-only hosted API advertises 1M context and max_tokens up to 131,072. MIT checkpoint config has 1,048,576 native positions; evaluation budgets do not change the hosted contract.
Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.2 cheaper for output?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $2.50 per million output tokens, against $4.40 for GLM 5.2 — roughly 1.8× 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 and writes $0. Global Flex/Batch $0.15/$1.25; regional $0.165/$1.375. Global Flex cache reads $0.0375; regional $0.04125. Global Priority $0.525/$4.375, cached $0.13125; regional $0.5775/$4.8125, cached $0.144375. Grounding is separately $0.03/request. Complete native offer published October 16, 2026; these token meters take effect October 1 and bill per 1K tokens, converted here to per million. Customization, provisioned capacity and account-specific routing remain separate. GLM 5.2: Z.ai PAYG USD/MTok input/output $1.40/$4.40, cached input $0.26; cache storage remains limited-time free with no verified end date. Web Search is separately $0.01/use. Text-only hosted API advertises 1M context and max_tokens up to 131,072. MIT checkpoint config has 1,048,576 native positions; evaluation budgets do not change the hosted contract.
Which has the larger context window, Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.2?
Both accept about 1M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Do Amazon Nova 2 Lite and GLM 5.2 support the same reasoning levels?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite exposes low, medium, high, while GLM 5.2 exposes none, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max.
Should I use Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.2?
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; GLM 5.2 is a candidate for open-weight deployments. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.
Can I self-host Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.2?
GLM 5.2 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Amazon Nova 2 Lite is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

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 $1.40 for GLM 5.2 — a 4.7x difference at the headline tier.
  • Deployment: GLM 5.2 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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