solar-mini vs Nova Lite
Nova Lite comes out ahead, 77 to 52 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Upstage
solar-mini
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
- Our pick
AmazonNova Lite
77/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context300K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Nova Lite is our pick
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against solar-mini (52). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. 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 · solar-mini $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsNova Litesolar-mini: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | solar-mini | Nova Lite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 89 | 96 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 70 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 39 |
| Overall | 100% | 52/100 | 77/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | solar-miniUpstage | Nova LiteAmazon |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.06 (best) |
| Output | $0.15 (best) | $0.24 |
| Cached input | — | $0.015 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.105 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Upstage API | Official Amazon Bedrock API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 300,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 10,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | solar-mini | amazon.nova-lite-v1:0 |
| API providers | 1 | 3 (best) |
| Released | Jun 12, 2024 | Dec 3, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2024 | Oct 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- solar-mini$1.80
- Nova Lite$1.08
Which should you choose?
Which is better: solar-mini or Nova Lite?
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against solar-mini (52). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, solar-mini or Nova Lite?
Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). solar-mini costs $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage 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 $0.15 for solar-mini (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. solar-mini has not been scored yet and Nova Lite has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for solar-mini and Nova Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 32,768 for solar-mini. Maximum output per response: solar-mini up to 4,096, Nova Lite up to 10,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
solar-mini accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. solar-mini and Nova Lite are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Nova Lite is the newest, released Dec 3, 2024. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: solar-mini Sep 2024, Nova Lite Oct 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.
