Amazon Nova

Amazon's family of foundation models on AWS Bedrock.

Hand-reviewed by the Toolglade team·Updated Aug 2026

chatbots#foundation-models#aws-bedrock#multimodal#low-cost

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Toolglade’s take

Amazon Nova is a sensible default for AWS-committed enterprises that want cheap, secure, well-integrated text and multimodal inference at scale, especially Nova 2 Lite and Pro and the very cheap Micro. The AWS integration and low per-token prices are genuine advantages. The big caveats: no open weights and hard Bedrock lock-in, a confusing lineup with Nova 1 versus Nova 2, and significant instability as Amazon retires Premier, the original Omni, Reel, and Canvas in late 2026. Historically it has trailed frontier models on top-end quality.

About Amazon Nova

Amazon Nova is Amazon's family of foundation models on AWS Bedrock, spanning text and multimodal understanding, image and video generation, speech, embeddings, and an agentic browser model. The Nova 2 family, announced at re:Invent 2025, adds long context, extended thinking, and real-time speech, while Amazon is retiring several Nova 1 models in 2026. Nova is proprietary, Bedrock-only, deeply AWS-integrated, and among the cheapest options on the platform.

Amazon Nova is Amazon's in-house set of foundation models offered exclusively through AWS Bedrock. The understanding models (Micro, Lite, Pro, and Premier) take text, image, and video inputs and return text, while creative models like Canvas and Reel generate images and video, Sonic handles speech, and Nova Act performs agentic browser actions. Nova positions itself as low-cost, deeply AWS-integrated models for high-volume workloads. At re:Invent 2025, Amazon announced the Nova 2 family, including Nova 2 Lite with a one-million-token context, Nova 2 Pro for reasoning and agentic coding, Nova 2 Sonic for real-time speech, and Nova 2 Omni, with controllable extended thinking across intensity levels. The lineup is in transition: in 2026 Amazon began winding down Nova Premier, the original Nova Omni, Nova Reel, and Nova Canvas into maintenance-only mode, redirecting engineers to a new Frontier Model Research division. Nova models are proprietary and available only via Bedrock, benefiting from deep AWS integration including IAM, VPC, Knowledge Bases, Guardrails, and Agents, plus batch and prompt-caching discounts. They are among the cheapest options on Bedrock, appealing to AWS-committed enterprises, though the lack of open weights, hard Bedrock lock-in, and the ongoing model retirements are real considerations.

TL;DR

Amazon Nova is Amazon's family of foundation models on AWS Bedrock, spanning text and multimodal understanding, image and video generation, speech, embeddings, and an agentic browser model. The Nova 2 family adds long context, extended thinking, and real-time speech, while Amazon is retiring several Nova 1 models in 2026. Nova is proprietary, Bedrock-only, deeply AWS-integrated, and among the cheapest options on the platform, best suited to AWS-committed enterprises.

Company overview

Amazon Nova is an internal Amazon and AWS product line rather than a separate company, delivered through AWS Bedrock. Amazon positions it as low-cost, deeply integrated foundation models for its cloud customers.

In 2026, Amazon significantly restructured the lineup, launching the Nova 2 family and redirecting engineers to a new Frontier Model Research division, led by Pieter Abbeel, aimed at a frontier model to rival the top labs, expected around re:Invent 2026.

Product features

Nova's understanding models (Micro, Lite, Pro, Premier) take text, image, and video inputs and return text, while Canvas generates images, Reel generates video, Sonic handles speech, and Nova Act performs agentic browser actions. Nova Multimodal Embeddings support retrieval.

The Nova 2 family adds Nova 2 Lite with a one-million-token context, Nova 2 Pro, Nova 2 Sonic, and Nova 2 Omni, with extended thinking at low, medium, and high intensity. All models run on Bedrock with IAM, VPC, Knowledge Bases, Guardrails, Agents, and fine-tuning.

Target market

Existing AWS and Bedrock enterprise customers wanting cheap, integrated, in-house foundation models for high-volume text and multimodal workloads, RAG, and agents.

Buyer personas

End users

Developers and data teams building applications on AWS Bedrock using Nova models.

Buyers

Enterprise cloud and platform leaders already standardized on AWS.

Key influencers

Cloud architects, FinOps stakeholders, and security and compliance teams.

Ideal customer profile

An AWS-committed enterprise wanting cheap, secure, well-integrated text and multimodal inference at scale, comfortable with Bedrock lock-in and the evolving Nova lineup.

Funding & performance

Amazon Nova is an internal Amazon and AWS product and is Amazon-funded. There is no separate funding round or external valuation for Nova.

Pros & cons

Pros

Among the lowest per-token prices on Bedrock, with very cheap Micro and Lite
Deep AWS integration including IAM, VPC, Guardrails, and Knowledge Bases
Broad modality coverage across text, image, video, speech, and agentic actions
Nova 2 adds long context up to a million tokens and controllable reasoning
Enterprise-grade security, compliance, and data governance via AWS
Batch and prompt-caching discounts cut costs further
Backed by Amazon's resources and a new frontier-research push

Cons

Major instability as Premier, original Omni, Reel, and Canvas are retired in 2026
No open weights and hard AWS Bedrock lock-in
Historically trailed frontier models on top-end quality
Available only on AWS Bedrock with no standalone API or portability
Confusing lineup across Nova 1 and Nova 2 with two Omni models
Bedrock's real bill often exceeds headline token rates
Creative generation tools are being discontinued, so not a safe long-term bet

Pricing plans

Nova Micro

$0.035 input / $0.14 output per 1M tokens

Text-only, cheapest tier
Low-latency
AWS Bedrock only
Batch and caching discounts

Nova Lite

$0.06 input / $0.24 output per 1M tokens

Text, image, video input
Low cost
Nova 2 Lite adds 1M context
Bedrock integration

Nova Pro

$0.80 input / $3.20 output per 1M tokens

Higher capability multimodal
Reasoning and agentic tasks
Bedrock integration
Batch and caching discounts

Nova Premier

$2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens

Most capable Nova 1 tier
Being retired ~Sept 2026
Multimodal understanding
Bedrock only

Key features

API

Multi-language

Integrations

AWS Bedrock, Knowledge Bases, Guardrails, Bedrock Agents, IAM and VPC

Input types

text, image, video

Output types

text, image, video, audio

Best For

low-cost inference at scale, AWS-integrated RAG and agents, high-volume text workloads, multimodal understanding

Compare key features

View all alternatives →

Feature

Amazon Nova

MiniMax

Reka AI

Pricing

Paid

Freemium

Free plan

Yes

Free trial

Yes

API

Yes

Self-hosted

Yes

Frequently asked questions

Where can I use Amazon Nova?+

Nova models are proprietary and available only through AWS Bedrock. There is no standalone API, so usage is tied to AWS.

Are any Nova models being discontinued?+

Yes. In 2026 Amazon began winding down Nova Premier, the original Nova Omni, Nova Reel, and Nova Canvas into maintenance-only mode, with end-of-life dates around September 2026.

What is new in Nova 2?+

The Nova 2 family, announced at re:Invent 2025, includes Nova 2 Lite with a one-million-token context, Nova 2 Pro for reasoning and agentic coding, Nova 2 Sonic for real-time speech, and Nova 2 Omni, with controllable extended thinking.

Are Nova models open weight?+

No. Amazon Nova models are proprietary and served only via Bedrock. Bedrock hosts many third-party open-weight models, but those are not Nova.

How cheap is Nova?+

Nova is among the cheapest options on Bedrock. Nova Micro is roughly $0.035 per million input tokens, and batch and prompt-caching discounts can lower costs further.