Aya Expanse 8B vs Nova Lite vs Qwen-VL OCR
Nova Lite comes out ahead, 58 to 15 and 0 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
CohereAya Expanse 8B
0/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context8K
- Our pick
AmazonNova Lite
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context300K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCR
15/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Nova Lite is our pick
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceNova LiteNova Lite $0.105 · Qwen-VL OCR $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Aya Expanse 8B unpriced
- Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 · Aya Expanse 8B 8,000 tokens
- Widest inputsNova LiteAya Expanse 8B: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 8BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 8B | Nova Lite | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 0 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 40% | 0 | 39 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 0/100 | 58/100 | 15/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Aya Expanse 8BCohere | Nova LiteAmazon | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $0.06 (best) | $0.72 |
| Output | — | $0.24 (best) | $0.72 |
| Cached input | — | $0.015 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $0.105 (best) | $0.72 |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Official Amazon Bedrock API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 8,000 tokens | 300,000 tokens (best) | 34,096 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 10,000 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | amazon.nova-lite-v1:0 | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | — | 3 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Dec 3, 2024 | Oct 28, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Oct 2024 | Apr 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Aya Expanse 8B—
- Nova Lite$1.08
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 8B, Nova Lite or Qwen-VL OCR?
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Aya Expanse 8B, Nova Lite or Qwen-VL OCR?
Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Qwen-VL OCR costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.105 per million tokens for Nova Lite versus $0.72 for Qwen-VL OCR (6.9× as much). Aya Expanse 8B has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Aya Expanse 8B has not been scored yet, Nova Lite has not been scored yet and Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Expanse 8B, Nova Lite and Qwen-VL OCR yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aya Expanse 8B and Qwen-VL OCR does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 34,096 for Qwen-VL OCR and 8,000 for Aya Expanse 8B. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 8B up to 4,000, Nova Lite up to 10,000, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 8B accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Expanse 8B publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Nova Lite and Qwen-VL OCR is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nova Lite is the newest, released Dec 3, 2024. Qwen-VL OCR came out Oct 28, 2024; Aya Expanse 8B came out Oct 24, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Nova Lite Oct 2024, Qwen-VL OCR Apr 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
