Independent reviews. IonBin has no partnerships with the tools on this page and was not paid for these listings. Our evaluations are our own, based on public documentation and our research. Product names are trademarks of their owners and are used for identification only. How disclosure works.

Model · Amazon Web Services

Amazon Nova models (AWS)

Verified Oct 17, 2026 Review by Nov 16, 2026 4 sources

Short answer

Amazon Nova is AWS's own model family. The current Nova 2 line includes Nova 2 Lite for text, image, video and document input, Nova 2 Sonic for speech, and a multimodal embeddings model, all used through Amazon Bedrock. AWS also sells Nova Act for browser agents and Nova Forge for building custom models.

What it is

Amazon Nova is a family of foundation models built by Amazon and sold through AWS. AWS’s Nova 2 user guide lists Nova 2 Lite for fast, low-cost work over text, images, video and documents, Nova 2 Sonic for speech conversations, and Nova Multimodal Embeddings for search. Two related products sit alongside the models. Nova Act runs agents that operate web interfaces, and AWS says it uses a custom Nova 2 Lite model. Nova Forge is for organizations that want to build their own models.

How it works

Enable a Nova model in Amazon Bedrock and call it from your AWS account. Usage is billed per input and output token.
Turn on extended thinking for harder tasks. AWS offers three intensity levels, and more thinking means more tokens.
Use Nova Act when a workflow lives in a browser UI with no API (see computer use). It’s billed per agent hour.
Larger teams can license Nova Forge on an annual subscription to build custom models.

Specs and pricing (checked 2026-10-17). AWS lists up to 1M tokens of context and 65,536 output tokens for Nova 2 models. Nova 2 Lite on the standard tier in US East (N. Virginia) is $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens. Prices vary by region and tier, so check the pricing page for yours.

Benefits

Keeps data, identity and billing inside an existing AWS account and contract.
Built-in web grounding and a code interpreter reduce the glue code for common agent tasks.
Browser agents cover legacy tools that have no API.

Limits and risks

Best value assumes AWS. If you don’t already run on AWS, the setup overhead is higher than with a direct API.
Browser agents are brittle. They’re slower than API integrations and break when pages change. Keep a human approval step.
Fast-moving lineup. AWS has already moved from the first Nova models to Nova 2. Treat the figures above as a dated snapshot.

Checked specs

Snapshot from official sources on Oct 17, 2026. Model lineups and prices change often; this page is re-verified every 30 days.

Nova 2 models	Nova 2 Lite (text, images, video, documents in; text out); Nova 2 Sonic (speech); Nova Multimodal Embeddings ^[1]
Context / max output	Up to 1M tokens / 65,536 tokens ^[2]
Features	Extended thinking with three intensity levels; built-in web grounding and code interpreter ^[2]
Nova 2 Lite price, standard tier, US East (N. Virginia) (checked 2026-10-17)	$0.30 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens ^[3]
Nova Act price (checked 2026-10-17)	$4.75 per agent hour; human-in-the-loop wait time isn't billed ^[3]
Nova Forge	Annual subscription, for building custom models ^[3]
Access	Amazon Bedrock in your AWS account ^[1]

Best-fit stacks

Stack 08

Dev, web & IT

Design, code, host and ship sites and internal tools, with an AI editor doing most of the typing.

Stack 06

Ops & admin automation

Hand repeat admin (receipts, logs, notices, handoffs) to workflows your agent can trigger.

Agent compatibility

API access	Yes	Official docs ↗
Also offered via	AWS (Amazon Bedrock)

Levels come from each tool's recorded, sourced compatibility. How the levels work.

Sources

What is Amazon Nova 2? · AWSofficial accessed Oct 17, 2026
What's new in Amazon Nova 2 · AWSofficial accessed Oct 17, 2026
Amazon Nova pricing · AWSofficial accessed Oct 17, 2026
Amazon Nova · AWSofficial accessed Oct 17, 2026

Practitioner views are restated in our words and labeled as views, not measured results. Product facts come from official sources dated above.

Suggest an edit

IonBin's wiki isn't user-edited. Corrections go to our Directory Curator, who checks them against primary sources before anything changes. Spot something wrong or out of date on “Amazon Nova models (AWS)”? Email us with a link to a primary source.

Suggest an edit by email or write to [email protected]