Amazon Nova Lite vs Amazon Nova Pro — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Amazon Nova Lite vs Amazon Nova Pro: which should I use?
Amazon Nova Pro costs 13.3× more per blended million tokens than Amazon Nova Lite. Amazon Nova Lite has the larger context window (300,000 tokens). Default to Amazon Nova Lite unless you specifically need Amazon Nova Pro's edge.
Price, speed, and task evidence
Task verdict
Best-fit task signals from the published model strengths; this is not a substitute for a controlled benchmark.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Cost-sensitive multimodal tasks on AWS Bedrock. | AWS-native multimodal workloads with a long context requirement. |
| Reasoning mode | Unavailable | Unavailable |
Effective workload cost
Modeled for Coding Agent: 20,000 input + 2,000 output tokens per task, 1 turn. This is a workload model, not a provider quote.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Coding Agent / task | $0.0017 (modeled) (winner) | $0.02 (modeled) |
| Input / output rate | $0.06 / $0.24 per M | $0.80 / $3.20 per M |
Speed
Only non-estimated benchmark results are shown as measured.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Measured throughput | 108 tokens/s (winner) | 64 tokens/s |
| Time to first token | 250 ms | 350 ms |
API compatibility
Provider-level wire-format and SDK facts; model-specific parameter differences may still apply.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI SDK | Not drop-in | Not drop-in |
| Request shape | Bedrock Converse API — no bearer key; every request is signed with AWS SigV4 using IAM credentials. | Bedrock Converse API — no bearer key; every request is signed with AWS SigV4 using IAM credentials. |
| Streaming | AWS event-stream (ConverseStream), not plain SSE | AWS event-stream (ConverseStream), not plain SSE |
Privacy and retention
Provider policy and residency facts from the verified provider registry. A missing retention policy is not treated as a guarantee.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Provider says API data trains models | No | No |
| Published retention period | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| Data residency | Selectable AWS region | Selectable AWS region |
Migration effort
Direction is from each displayed model to the other. Effort is derived from provider compatibility and published parameter maps.
| Fact | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Move Amazon Nova Lite → Amazon Nova Pro | drop-in; 0 breaking parameter differences | Target: Amazon Nova Pro |
| Move Amazon Nova Pro → Amazon Nova Lite | Source: Amazon Nova Pro | drop-in; 0 breaking parameter differences |
| Why | Same provider; only the model identifier changes. | Same provider; only the model identifier changes. |
Spec comparison
| Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $0.06/M ✓ | $0.80/M |
| Price (output) | $0.24/M ✓ | $3.20/M |
| Blended price | $0.11/M ✓ | $1.40/M |
| Context window | 300,000 tokens | 300,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 32,768 tokens ✓ |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text, vision, audio |
| Reasoning mode | No | No |
| Released | 2024-12 | 2024-12 |
| Speed | 108 t/s ✓ | 64 t/s |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Amazon Nova Lite | Amazon Nova Pro | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $0.11 | $1.40 | $1.30 (13.3×) |
| 10,000,000 | $1.05 | $14.00 | $12.95 (13.3×) |
| 100,000,000 | $10.50 | $140.00 | $129.50 (13.3×) |
Choose Amazon Nova Lite if…
- ✓Budget-tier accuracy on par with other Flash/Mini models
- ✓Lower output cost than Nova Pro
- ✓Multimodal input included
- ✓Cost-sensitive multimodal tasks on AWS Bedrock.
Choose Amazon Nova Pro if…
- ✓Capable multimodal mid-tier model
- ✓Long context for a Bedrock-native model
- ✓Native audio and video input
- ✓AWS-native multimodal workloads with a long context requirement.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Amazon Nova Lite and Amazon Nova Pro side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Amazon Nova Lite vs Amazon Nova Pro FreeFAQ
Is Amazon Nova Lite cheaper than Amazon Nova Pro?
Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper, at $0.11 per million blended tokens vs $1.40 for Amazon Nova Pro.
Which has the bigger context window, Amazon Nova Lite or Amazon Nova Pro?
Both models support 300,000 tokens of context.
Can Amazon Nova Lite replace Amazon Nova Pro for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Budget-tier accuracy on par with other Flash/Mini models (Amazon Nova Lite) vs Capable multimodal mid-tier model (Amazon Nova Pro) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Which is faster, Amazon Nova Lite or Amazon Nova Pro?
Amazon Nova Lite is faster: 108 t/s vs 64 t/s, measured on our speed benchmarks.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-06-14. Specs verified 2026-08-08.