Amazon Nova Micro vs Yi-Lightning
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceTie
Both land near $0.14 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost.
- Context windowAmazon Nova Micro
Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× 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.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Amazon Nova Micro edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 0. Both land near $0.14 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost. Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× 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), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Amazon Nova Micro is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Yi-Lightning, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Amazon Nova Micro is usually picked for cheapest llm and fastest llm workloads, while Yi-Lightning sees more deployments in chinese llm 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
| Spec | Amazon Nova Micro | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | Other |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Oct 2024 |
| Modalities | text | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.035 / 1M tokens | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $0.14 / 1M tokens | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| 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$0.315 vs $0.630
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$3.15 vs $6.30
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$6.09 vs $21.84
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $0.315 vs $0.630 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $3.15 vs $6.30 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $6.09 vs $21.84 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 Micro$0.011
- Yi-Lightning$0.021
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
Amazon Nova Micro fits when…
- Lowest-cost frontier-lab model
- Native AWS integration
- Generous 128k context for the price tier
- Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
Yi-Lightning fits when…
- Cheap
- Strong Chinese
- Fast
Consider DBRX
Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.
Frequently asked
Is Amazon Nova Micro or Yi-Lightning cheaper?
Both Amazon Nova Micro and Yi-Lightning are priced equivalently at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens.Which has the larger context window?
Amazon Nova Micro accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.Is Amazon Nova Micro or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
Both Amazon Nova Micro and Yi-Lightning 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 Micro and Yi-Lightning released?
Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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