Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Nova Lite | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.06 | $0.06 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.24 | $0.25 |
Verdict. Nova Lite wins the overall benchmark matchup 1–0 across 1 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Nova Lite is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Nova Lite makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Nova Lite is strongest on Intelligence Index (6.7). Granite 4.0 H Small leads on Intelligence Index (4.9).
Speed. On throughput, Nova Lite generates tokens at 151 tok/s versus 25 tok/s — about 84% faster. On time-to-first-token, Nova Lite responds in 960ms vs 26740ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Amazon and IBM sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Amazon tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while IBM often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Nova Lite costs $5.40 ($65/year); Granite 4.0 H Small costs $5.55 ($67/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Nova Lite ≈ $0.78/run, Granite 4.0 H Small ≈ $0.80/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Nova Lite ≈ $36/run, Granite 4.0 H Small ≈ $37/run. Nova Lite becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Nova Lite is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.10/M tokens vs $0.11/M for Granite 4.0 H Small.
Nova Lite wins 1 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Granite 4.0 H Small. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Nova Lite generates tokens faster at 151 tok/s vs 25 tok/s. Nova Lite also has lower time-to-first-token (0.96s vs 26.74s).
Choose based on your priorities: Nova Lite for lower cost, Nova Lite for stronger benchmark performance, and Nova Lite for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.