Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Nova 2.0 Pro Preview
Head-to-head specifications
| Metric | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Nova 2.0 Pro Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 25.0 | 26.0 | -3.8% |
| Coding Index | 39.3 | 34.0 | +15.6% |
| Agentic Index | 11.0 | 7.0 | — |
| Context window | 400K tokens | 262K tokens | — |
| Blended price ($/1M tokens) | $0.13 | $0.87 | -85.1% |
| Output speed (tokens/s) | 54 | 123 | -56.1% |
| Access | Open weights | Proprietary API | — |
- Nova 2.0 Pro Preview leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 26.0 vs 25.0).
- Gemma 4 26B A4B is the cheaper model to run at $0.13/1M blended tokens — about 6.7× cheaper.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B offers the larger context window (400K tokens), useful for long documents and codebases.
Verdict: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Nova 2.0 Pro Preview?
Gemma 4 26B A4B advantages
- Coding ability (+13%)
- Agentic task performance (+36%)
- Context window (+35%)
- Affordability (+85%)
Nova 2.0 Pro Preview advantages
- Output speed (+56%)
Which should you choose?
- Choose the Gemma 4 26B A4B if coding and software development are your main workload.
- Choose the Nova 2.0 Pro Preview if low latency and fast generation matter for your application.
- Choose the Gemma 4 26B A4B if you build agents or multi-step tool-use workflows.
Value for money
Gemma 4 26B A4B offers more intelligence per dollar (6.4× the Intelligence-Index-per-cost of the alternative), making it the stronger value for high-volume use. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting can reduce costs further at scale.
Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Nova 2.0 Pro Preview: which should you choose?
Gemma 4 26B A4B — Google text model with an Intelligence Index of 25, a 400K-token context window and a blended price of $0.13/1M tokens (open weights).
Nova 2.0 Pro Preview — Amazon multimodal model with an Intelligence Index of 26, a 262K-token context window and a blended price of $0.87/1M tokens.
Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Nova 2.0 Pro Preview: Nova 2.0 Pro Preview scores higher on the Intelligence Index. Nova 2.0 Pro Preview leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 26.0 vs 25.0). Gemma 4 26B A4B is the cheaper model to run at $0.13/1M blended tokens — about 6.7× cheaper.
Capability: intelligence, coding and agentic work
On the composite Intelligence Index the Nova 2.0 Pro Preview scores 26.0 versus 25.0. For software development, the Coding Index puts Gemma 4 26B A4B ahead (39.3 vs 34.0). On agentic, multi-step tool-use tasks, Gemma 4 26B A4B measures stronger. Composite indices summarize many evaluations, but always test on your own workload before committing.
Context window and speed
The Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts up to 400K tokens per request, which sets how much documentation, transcript or code it can reason over at once. In measured throughput, Nova 2.0 Pro Preview generates faster (123 vs 54 tokens/s), which matters for interactive apps and high-volume pipelines.
Pricing and access
At blended per-token rates, Gemma 4 26B A4B is the cheaper model to run ($0.13 vs $0.87 per 1M tokens). Gemma 4 26B A4B is open weights and Nova 2.0 Pro Preview is proprietary api. Open-weight models can be self-hosted, trading per-call cost for infrastructure you manage; for production also weigh rate limits, throughput and data-residency requirements.
The verdict
Both are credible choices in the ai model comparison space; the specification table above lays out every metric so you can weigh the trade-offs that matter to you. Pick the one whose strengths line up with how you will actually use it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Gemma 4 26B A4B better than the Nova 2.0 Pro Preview?
Gemma 4 26B A4B is the clearly stronger overall choice, winning most of the dimensions that matter. Nova 2.0 Pro Preview leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 26.0 vs 25.0).
What is the main difference between the Gemma 4 26B A4B and the Nova 2.0 Pro Preview?
Nova 2.0 Pro Preview leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 26.0 vs 25.0). Gemma 4 26B A4B is the cheaper model to run at $0.13/1M blended tokens — about 6.7× cheaper.
Which is better value?
Gemma 4 26B A4B offers more intelligence per dollar (6.4× the Intelligence-Index-per-cost of the alternative), making it the stronger value for high-volume use. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting can reduce costs further at scale.
Which should I choose?
Choose the Gemma 4 26B A4B if coding and software development are your main workload. Choose the Nova 2.0 Pro Preview if low latency and fast generation matter for your application.
Methodology
Large language models are compared on independent leaderboard metrics: an Intelligence Index (a composite of reasoning and knowledge evaluations), Coding and Agentic indices where measured, community arena Elo, maximum context window, a blended API price per million tokens (weighted across cache-hit, input and output rates), and measured output speed in tokens per second. Where a model ships multiple reasoning-effort variants, we report its strongest variant. Benchmarks capture only part of real-world quality, which also depends on tool use, latency, safety and task fit — and this space moves quickly, so figures reflect the leaderboard snapshot on the page date.