Amazon Nova Lite Environmental Impact
AWS's lightweight multimodal model — very low cost
- Architecture
- Multimodal Transformer (lightweight)
- Context
- 300,000 tokens
- Provider
- Amazon
Energy per query
0.30 Wh
about the same as a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.13 g
US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
0.65 mL
~1,538 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
AWS US East (Virginia)
Provider
Amazon
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
450 g CO2/kWh (25% renewable)
How does Amazon Nova Lite compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Amazon Nova Lite is designed for high-volume, cost-sensitive applications at ~0.3 Wh per query. It supports text, image, and video inputs despite its small size, making it competitive with Gemini Flash for efficiency.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on AWS Trainium/Inferentia chips in AWS data centres. Benefits from AWS renewable energy commitments.
Water Usage
At ~0.65 mL per query, Nova Lite has a low water footprint.
About Amazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite is a text and chat model from Amazon, released in December 3, 2024. AWS's lightweight multimodal model — very low cost. Each query uses 0.30 Wh of energy and produces 0.13 g of CO₂. That's roughly comparable to a traditional Google search. It ranks in the top quartile of text and chat models for energy efficiency (#17 of 94).
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Amazon has not published official energy data for Amazon Nova Lite. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Key Insights
Amazon Amazon Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Amazon Nova Lite usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Amazon Nova Lite.
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How much energy does Amazon Nova Lite use per query?
Each Amazon Nova Lite query consumes approximately 0.30 Wh of energy. This is about the same as a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Amazon Nova Lite's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of AWS US East (Virginia), each query produces approximately 0.13 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 450 g CO2/kWh with 25% renewable energy.
How much water does Amazon Nova Lite use?
Each query consumes approximately 0.65 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Amazon Nova Lite compare to a Google search?
A Amazon Nova Lite query uses about the same as a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Amazon Nova Lite uses 0.30 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Multimodal Transformer (lightweight)
Context window
300,000 tokens
Release date
2024-12-03
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2024-10