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GLM-4.5 vs Amazon Nova Lite

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

GLM-4.5 specs · Amazon Nova Lite specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite publishes pricing ($0.24 / 1M output tokens) while GLM-4.5 does not.

  • Context windowAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K, 2.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text, vision.

  • OpennessGLM-4.5

    GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

On balance Amazon Nova Lite edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against GLM-4.5's 1. Amazon Nova Lite publishes pricing ($0.24 / 1M output tokens) while GLM-4.5 does not. Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K, 2.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text, vision), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

GLM-4.5 is the newer of the two, released 8 months after Amazon Nova Lite, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GLM-4.5 is usually picked for chinese llm and open source llm workloads, while Amazon Nova Lite sees more deployments in customer support and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM-4.5Amazon Nova Lite
ProviderOtherOther
ReleasedJul 2025Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Context window128K tokens300K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.060 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.24 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (MIT)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $0.540
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $5.40
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $10.44

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • GLM-4.5Pricing unavailable
  • Amazon Nova Lite$0.018

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick GLM-4.5 if

GLM-4.5 fits when…

  • MIT license
  • Strong Chinese
  • Multimodal
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
Pick Amazon Nova Lite if

Amazon Nova Lite fits when…

  • Very cheap
  • AWS-native
  • Multimodal
  • Long-context tasks, handles 300K tokens vs 128K for GLM-4.5.
Don't want either?

Consider DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsGLM-4.5 vs DBRXAmazon Nova Lite vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is GLM-4.5 or Amazon Nova Lite cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K for GLM-4.5.
  • Is GLM-4.5 or Amazon Nova Lite better for coding?
    Both GLM-4.5 and Amazon Nova Lite are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT). Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.
  • When were GLM-4.5 and Amazon Nova Lite released?
    GLM-4.5 was released by Other on 2025-07-28. Amazon Nova Lite was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
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