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Model comparison

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs GLM 5.3 Flash

Amazon against Z.ai, 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

Z.ai

GLM 5.3 Flash

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationAmazon Nova 2 LiteGLM 5.3 Flash
ProviderAmazonZ.ai
TierBalancedBalanced
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.30Winner: $0.15
Output / 1M tokens$2.50Winner: $0.50
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot verifiedUnverified320B total / 18B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video, file
LicenseNot verifiedUnverifiedMIT
API model idamazon.nova-2-lite-v1:0glm-5.3-flash
ReleasedDecember 2, 2025August 26, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date GLM 5.3 Flash: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified42
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date GLM 5.3 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified84.3
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date GLM 5.3 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified63.4
Humanity's Last Exam · source date GLM 5.3 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified55.3

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.

GLM 5.3 Flash: Z.ai API $0.15/$0.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03 and limited-time free cache storage. Hosted docs advertise 1M context and 128K output; the checkpoint config sets 1,048,576 context. An exact endpoint-specific numeric output ceiling is not separately verified. FlashX is a distinct $0.37/$1.25 endpoint; third-party prices require their own checks.

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.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked October 2, 2026

GLM 5.3 Flash

Z.ai's multimodal MIT-licensed 320B/18B MoE checkpoint and hosted Flash endpoint, with always-enabled reasoning and publisher coding/agent evaluations.

Best for

  • Cost-efficient long-context
  • Multimodal input
  • Coding agents

Watch out

The 320B weights require substantial hardware; memory depends on quantization, runtime and context. Effort low/high/max defaults to max. Flash is on Coding Plan with three times GLM-5.3 quota; FlashX is not on the plan. Half-point off-peak/weekend use applies to plan quota, not per-token API prices. Publisher evaluation generation budgets are not hosted API output caps.

When the cheaper one wins

GLM 5.3 Flash is cheaper on output at $0.50 per million tokens against $2.50 for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — about 5.0×. 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.

Run the model picker

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 24 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 · GLM 5.3 Flash

Common questions

Amazon Nova 2 Lite vs GLM 5.3 Flash

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

Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.3 Flash cheaper for input?
GLM 5.3 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 per million input tokens, against $0.30 for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — roughly 2.0× 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. GLM 5.3 Flash: Z.ai API $0.15/$0.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03 and limited-time free cache storage. Hosted docs advertise 1M context and 128K output; the checkpoint config sets 1,048,576 context. An exact endpoint-specific numeric output ceiling is not separately verified. FlashX is a distinct $0.37/$1.25 endpoint; third-party prices require their own checks.
Is Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.3 Flash cheaper for output?
GLM 5.3 Flash is cheaper at $0.50 per million output tokens, against $2.50 for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — roughly 5.0× 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. GLM 5.3 Flash: Z.ai API $0.15/$0.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03 and limited-time free cache storage. Hosted docs advertise 1M context and 128K output; the checkpoint config sets 1,048,576 context. An exact endpoint-specific numeric output ceiling is not separately verified. FlashX is a distinct $0.37/$1.25 endpoint; third-party prices require their own checks.
Which has the larger context window, Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.3 Flash?
GLM 5.3 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 GLM 5.3 Flash support the same reasoning levels?
Amazon Nova 2 Lite exposes low, medium, high, while GLM 5.3 Flash exposes low, high, max.
Should I use Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.3 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; GLM 5.3 Flash is a candidate for cost-efficient long-context. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.
Can I self-host Amazon Nova 2 Lite or GLM 5.3 Flash?
GLM 5.3 Flash 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: GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.15 per 1M tokens versus $0.30 for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — a 2x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: GLM 5.3 Flash takes 1.05M against 1M for Amazon Nova 2 Lite — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Deployment: GLM 5.3 Flash publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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