Model comparison
Amazon Nova 2 Pro vs DeepSeek R1
Amazon against DeepSeek, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.
Catalog record checked September 4, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below
Amazon
Amazon Nova 2 Pro
Balanced
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1
Balanced · Open weights
| Specification | Amazon Nova 2 Pro | DeepSeek R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | DeepSeek |
| Tier | Balanced | Balanced |
| Context window | Winner: 1M | 128K |
| Max output | Not verifiedUnverified | 33K |
| Input / 1M tokens | $1.25 | Winner: $0.55 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10 | Winner: $2.19 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Parameters | Not disclosedUnverified | 671B total / 37B active (MoE) |
| Reasoning levels | low, medium, high | low, high, max |
| Modalities | text, image, video | text |
| License | Not disclosedUnverified | MIT |
| API model id | amazon.nova-2-pro-preview-20251202-v1:0 | deepseek-reasoner |
| Released | December 2, 2025 | January 20, 2025 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14) | Winner: 44 | 42 |
Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.
Benchmark receipts
- 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
Pricing tiers: Amazon Nova 2 Pro: Standard tier $1.25/$10.00 per MTok (cross-region global endpoint, us-east-1 offer file published 2026-09-01); single-region +10%. Flex $0.625/$5.00; batch $0.69/$5.50; Priority $2.19/$17.50. Cached input ~$0.31 (secondary source). Still preview (id amazon.nova-2-pro-preview-20251202-v1:0). · DeepSeek R1: Launch pricing $0.55/$2.19 per MTok (cache hit $0.14). Third-party hosts list ~$0.70/$2.50. Verify which weights a host serves.
Amazon Nova 2 Pro
Nova 2 Pro is Amazon's closed Bedrock flagship with a 1M-token context and multimodal input.
Best for
- AWS-native workloads
- Multimodal
- Long-context
Watch out
Bedrock-only (closed) and still preview — pricing may change at GA. Older Nova siblings are sunsetting (Premier and original Sonic EOL 2026-09-14, Canvas/Reel 2026-09-30).
DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek R1 is the open-weight (MIT) reasoning model — o1-class quality, 128K context.
Best for
- Harder reasoning on a budget
- Open-weight deployments
- Agentic coding
Watch out
The deepseek-reasoner alias has been remapped to newer models on first-party API; pin the host/checkpoint you cite.
When the cheaper one wins
DeepSeek R1 is cheaper on output at $2.19 per million tokens against $10 for Amazon Nova 2 Pro — about 4.6×. 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. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.
Run the model pickerEvidence confidence: High
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.
- 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
- Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 7 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.
- Amazon Nova 2 Pro: AWS Bedrock offer file (Nova 2.0 Pro standard $1.25/$10, published 2026-09-01) (accessed 2026-09-04)
- Amazon Nova 2 Pro: DeepLearning.AI — Nova 2 family ($1.25/$0.31/$10) (accessed 2026-09-04)
- Amazon Nova 2 Pro: AWS — Nova 2 release notes (still preview) (accessed 2026-09-04)
- DeepSeek R1: AI/TLDR — DeepSeek R1 (accessed 2026-08-29)
- DeepSeek R1: PricePerToken — DeepSeek R1 (accessed 2026-08-29)
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Diving deeper on one model? Amazon Nova 2 Pro · DeepSeek R1
Common questions
Amazon Nova 2 Pro vs DeepSeek R1
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Is Amazon Nova 2 Pro or DeepSeek R1 cheaper for input?
DeepSeek R1 is cheaper at $0.55 per million input tokens, against $1.25 for Amazon Nova 2 Pro — roughly 2.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Amazon Nova 2 Pro has tiered pricing: Standard tier $1.25/$10.00 per MTok (cross-region global endpoint, us-east-1 offer file published 2026-09-01); single-region +10%. Flex $0.625/$5.00; batch $0.69/$5.50; Priority $2.19/$17.50. Cached input ~$0.31 (secondary source). Still preview (id amazon.nova-2-pro-preview-20251202-v1:0). DeepSeek R1 has tiered pricing: Launch pricing $0.55/$2.19 per MTok (cache hit $0.14). Third-party hosts list ~$0.70/$2.50. Verify which weights a host serves.
Is Amazon Nova 2 Pro or DeepSeek R1 cheaper for output?
DeepSeek R1 is cheaper at $2.19 per million output tokens, against $10 for Amazon Nova 2 Pro — roughly 4.6× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Amazon Nova 2 Pro has tiered pricing: Standard tier $1.25/$10.00 per MTok (cross-region global endpoint, us-east-1 offer file published 2026-09-01); single-region +10%. Flex $0.625/$5.00; batch $0.69/$5.50; Priority $2.19/$17.50. Cached input ~$0.31 (secondary source). Still preview (id amazon.nova-2-pro-preview-20251202-v1:0). DeepSeek R1 has tiered pricing: Launch pricing $0.55/$2.19 per MTok (cache hit $0.14). Third-party hosts list ~$0.70/$2.50. Verify which weights a host serves.
Which has the larger context window, Amazon Nova 2 Pro or DeepSeek R1?
Amazon Nova 2 Pro accepts 1M tokens against 128K for DeepSeek R1. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Amazon Nova 2 Pro and DeepSeek R1 support the same reasoning levels?
Amazon Nova 2 Pro exposes low, medium, high, while DeepSeek R1 exposes low, high, max.
Should I use Amazon Nova 2 Pro or DeepSeek R1?
Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Amazon Nova 2 Pro suits aws-native workloads; DeepSeek R1 suits harder reasoning on a budget.
Can I self-host Amazon Nova 2 Pro or DeepSeek R1?
DeepSeek R1 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Amazon Nova 2 Pro 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: DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55 per 1M tokens versus $1.25 for Amazon Nova 2 Pro — a 2.3x difference at the headline tier.
- Context: Amazon Nova 2 Pro takes 1M against 128K for DeepSeek R1 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
- Measured capability: Amazon Nova 2 Pro leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 44 to 42 (measured 2026-08-14).
- Deployment: DeepSeek R1 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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