Head-to-head comparison
Nova Micro 1.0 (Amazon) and Laguna XS 2.1 (Poolside) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.
Snapshot as of 18 August 2026
As of 18 August 2026, Nova Micro 1.0 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#204 vs #207); Laguna XS 2.1 is 1.2× cheaper per output token ($0.12/1M vs $0.14/1M); and Laguna XS 2.1 offers the longer context window (262K vs 128K tokens).
Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · placed against measured peers on publisher-reported benchmarks, discounted for self-report optimism. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.
Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.
Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.
Nova Micro 1.0 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 18 August 2026: #204 against #207. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.
Laguna XS 2.1 is cheaper on output tokens: $0.12/1M against $0.14/1M. Input tokens are $0.035/1M for Nova Micro 1.0 and $0.06/1M for Laguna XS 2.1. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.
Laguna XS 2.1 has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 128K.
The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.
Nova Micro 1.0: API only. Laguna XS 2.1: Restricted license. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.
ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Nova Micro 1.0 and 1 for Laguna XS 2.1, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.
Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 18 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.