Nova Pro vs GPT-5 nano

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.

Nova Pro is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 40 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5 nano is the reasoning model in the pair, while Nova Pro is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. GPT-5 nano gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for Nova Pro.

Quick Verdict

Pick Nova Pro if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5 nano only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you need the larger 400K context window.

Knowledge

GPT-5 nano

Nova Pro

35.3

GPT-5 nano

71.2

41
MMLU
-
40
GPQA
71.2
38
SuperGPQA
-
36
OpenBookQA
-
53
MMLU-Pro
-
4
HLE
-

Coding

Nova Pro
33
HumanEval
-
19
SWE-bench Verified
-
14
LiveCodeBench
-

Mathematics

GPT-5 nano

Nova Pro

42.4

GPT-5 nano

85.2

41
AIME 2023
-
43
AIME 2024
-
42
AIME 2025
85.2
37
HMMT Feb 2023
-
39
HMMT Feb 2024
-
38
HMMT Feb 2025
-
40
BRUMO 2025
-
59
MATH-500
-

Reasoning

Nova Pro
39
SimpleQA
-
37
MuSR
-
63
BBH
-

Instruction Following

Nova Pro
66
IFEval
-

Multilingual

Nova Pro
61
MGSM
-

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Nova Pro or GPT-5 nano?

Nova Pro is ahead overall, 40 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2025, where the scores are 42 and 85.2.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Nova Pro or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 71.2 versus 35.3. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Nova Pro or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 85.2 versus 42.4. Inside this category, AIME 2025 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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