🇺🇸 USA · Amazon Nova
Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Last updated: 2026-06-26 Plain-English tagline: Amazon’s own foundation-model family — Nova Pro / Lite / Micro / Premier for text + multimodal; Nova Canvas for images; Nova Reel for video. Available via AWS Bedrock at AWS-competitive prices.
Front-matter facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services (Seattle, USA) |
| Country / origin | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Recommended for Australian users? | ✅ Yes — via AWS Bedrock, AUS data residency via Sydney (ap-southeast-2) |
| Privacy summary | AWS Bedrock no-train commitments apply; tenant-isolated; AUS data residency |
| Free tier | Limited via AWS Free Tier |
| Paid tiers | Pay-per-token via AWS Bedrock; competitive with Anthropic / OpenAI rates |
| First released | December 2024 (re:Invent 2024 announcement) |
| Last reviewed | 2026-06-26 |
| Official site | https://aws.amazon.com/ai/generative-ai/nova/ |
What it is
Amazon Nova is Amazon’s own foundation-model family, launched December 2024 at AWS re:Invent. It’s Amazon’s strategic move toward less dependence on Anthropic (Amazon’s largest investment, ~US$8B) and OpenAI (via Microsoft Bedrock partnership), giving AWS its own first-party models.
Nova models:
- Nova Micro — text-only, low-cost, fast
- Nova Lite — text + multimodal, balanced
- Nova Pro — text + multimodal, capable
- Nova Premier — text + multimodal, frontier-tier
- Nova Canvas — image generation
- Nova Reel — video generation
- Nova Sonic — voice / speech (newer)
Distinguishing features:
- Available via AWS Bedrock alongside Claude / Llama / Mistral / Cohere
- Competitive pricing — typically priced below comparable Anthropic / OpenAI tiers
- AWS-native integration — same IAM, same billing, same region selection
- AUS data residency via Sydney (
ap-southeast-2) - AWS optimised inference — well-tuned to AWS infrastructure
What you’d use it for
- Cost-optimised inference — when Nova Micro / Lite is “good enough” and cheaper than Claude Haiku / Sonnet
- Tight AWS integration — when you’re building AWS-native and prefer first-party AWS models
- AUS data residency requirement — Nova in Sydney for compliance-sensitive workloads
- Voice (Nova Sonic) — competing with ElevenLabs / OpenAI Voice Engine
- Image (Nova Canvas) — competing with Imagen / Firefly / OpenAI Image
- Video (Nova Reel) — competing with Sora / Veo / Runway
When NOT to choose Nova:
- For best-in-class chat quality, Claude / GPT / Gemini still lead frontier benchmarks
- For best image gen, Imagen / Firefly / Midjourney
- For best video gen, Sora / Veo
- For broader ecosystem (libraries, integrations, community), the established frontier labs are stronger
How to access from Australia
Via AWS Bedrock
- Sign in to AWS console
- Navigate to Amazon Bedrock
- Request access to Nova models (typically auto-approved for established AWS accounts)
- Choose region —
ap-southeast-2Sydney for AUS data residency - Use via Bedrock API or Bedrock console playground
- Billed via standard AWS billing in AUD
Via Amazon Q Business / Q Developer
- Nova models power some Q features under the hood
- No direct interaction; uses AWS infrastructure
What it costs
Pay-per-token (Bedrock pricing)
- Nova Micro: ~US0.14 per million input/output tokens (extremely cheap)
- Nova Lite: ~US0.24 per million
- Nova Pro: ~US3.20 per million
- Nova Premier: higher — verify current Bedrock pricing
- Nova Canvas (image): per-image pricing
- Nova Reel (video): per-second pricing
(Verify current rates at aws.amazon.com/bedrock/pricing — Amazon adjusts.)
AWS Free Tier
- Some Bedrock usage credits for new AWS accounts
How it compares to alternatives
| Capability | Amazon Nova | Claude (via Bedrock) | Llama (via Bedrock) | Direct Anthropic API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost (cheap tier) | Best (Nova Micro) | Haiku 4.5 | Llama 3 8B | Haiku 4.5 |
| Frontier capability | Premier (improving) | Opus 4.8 | Llama 4 405B+ | Opus 4.8 |
| Image gen native | Nova Canvas | None | None | None |
| Video gen native | Nova Reel | None | None | None |
| AUS data residency (Sydney) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Via Bedrock |
| AWS integration depth | Native | Strong | Strong | Via Bedrock |
| Multi-cloud / cloud-agnostic | AWS only | Yes (also Vertex, direct) | Yes | Cloud-agnostic |
For AWS-native cost-optimised inference, Nova Micro / Lite are genuinely strong picks. For frontier quality, the established frontier models still lead.
Privacy / data handling
- No training on customer data via Bedrock — AWS contractually committed
- Tenant-isolated within your AWS account
- AUS data residency via Sydney region
- IRAP assessed for AUS government workloads
- HIPAA / GDPR / SOC 2 / ISO 27001 compliant
Recent changes
- 2026: Nova Premier (frontier-tier) released; Nova Sonic (voice) launched
- December 2024: Initial Nova family launch at re:Invent
Gotchas
- Nova is AWS-only — not accessible outside Bedrock; if you don’t use AWS, Nova isn’t an option
- Quality vs Anthropic / OpenAI — Nova is competitive on price but frontier benchmark scores typically trail; verify for your specific use case
- Nova model lineup is newer — fewer community resources / tutorials than for Claude / GPT
- Nova Canvas / Reel are newer than Imagen / Sora and quality is less polished as of mid-2026
- The Amazon-Anthropic relationship is complex — Amazon invested US$8B in Anthropic AND builds Nova as an alternative; both succeed in different niches
See also
- Amazon Q Business 🟩 🟦
- Amazon Q Developer 🟩 🟦
- AWS Bedrock 🟥
- AWS overview 🟥
- Claude models 🟩 🟦 — also available via Bedrock
- Llama (Meta) 🟥 — also available via Bedrock
- Mistral 🟥 — also available via Bedrock
- Cohere 🟩 🟦 — also available via Bedrock
- Decision frameworks — Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini 🟥