Amazon Nova Lite vs o3
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Amazon Nova Lite specs · o3 specs- PriceAmazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 33.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $8.00 per 1M).
- Context windowAmazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 200K, 1.5× 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.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Amazon Nova Lite edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against o3's 0. Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 33.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $8.00 per 1M). Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 200K, 1.5× 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. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
o3 is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Amazon Nova Lite, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Amazon Nova Lite is usually picked for customer support and cheapest llm workloads, while o3 sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Amazon Nova Lite | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | OpenAI |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 300K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.060 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $0.24 / 1M tokens | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$0.540 vs $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$5.40 vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$10.44 vs $348
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $0.540 vs $18.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $5.40 vs $180 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $10.44 vs $348 per month, model A comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Amazon Nova Lite$0.018
- o3$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval,95.0
- GPQA,87.7
Amazon Nova Lite fits when…
- Very cheap
- AWS-native
- Multimodal
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 33.3× cheaper than o3 on output tokens.
o3 fits when…
- Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
- Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
- Tool-use during reasoning loops
Consider DBRX
Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.
Frequently asked
Is Amazon Nova Lite or o3 cheaper?
Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.24 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for o3.Which has the larger context window?
Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 200K for o3.Is Amazon Nova Lite or o3 better for coding?
Both Amazon Nova Lite and o3 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?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Amazon Nova Lite and o3 released?
Amazon Nova Lite was released by Other on 2024-12-03. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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