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Llama 4 405B vs Amazon Nova Micro

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Llama 4 405B specs · Amazon Nova Micro specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Micro

    Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not.

  • Context windowLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Amazon Nova Micro.

  • OpennessLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Amazon Nova Micro's 1. Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Llama 4 405B handles text, vision while Amazon Nova Micro handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

Llama 4 405B is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Amazon Nova Micro, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Llama 4 405B is usually picked for open source llm and fine tuning workloads, while Amazon Nova Micro sees more deployments in cheapest llm and fastest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecLlama 4 405BAmazon Nova Micro
ProviderMetaOther
ReleasedApr 2025Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window256K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.035 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.14 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-12,
Open weightsYes (Llama 4 Community License)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $0.315
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $3.15
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $6.09

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Llama 4 405BPricing unavailable
  • Amazon Nova Micro$0.011

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Llama 4 405B if

Llama 4 405B fits when…

  • Strongest open-weight model at launch
  • Multimodal (text + vision)
  • Wide hosting availability
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Amazon Nova Micro.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Llama 4 Community License).
Pick Amazon Nova Micro if

Amazon Nova Micro fits when…

  • Lowest-cost frontier-lab model
  • Native AWS integration
  • Generous 128k context for the price tier
Don't want either?

Consider Llama 4 70B

Meta's mid-tier Llama 4, the practical workhorse for self-hosted deployments.

See Llama 4 70B specsLlama 4 405B vs Llama 4 70BAmazon Nova Micro vs Llama 4 70B

Frequently asked

  • Is Llama 4 405B or Amazon Nova Micro cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for Amazon Nova Micro.
  • Is Llama 4 405B or Amazon Nova Micro better for coding?
    Both Llama 4 405B and Amazon Nova Micro are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License). Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.
  • When were Llama 4 405B and Amazon Nova Micro released?
    Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05. Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
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