Mistral Large 2 vs Amazon Nova Lite
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceAmazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 25.0× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $6.00 per 1M).
- Context windowAmazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K, 2.3× 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.
- ModalitiesAmazon Nova Lite
Amazon Nova Lite supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Mistral Large 2.
- OpennessMistral Large 2
Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.
On balance Amazon Nova Lite edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Mistral Large 2's 1. Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 25.0× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $6.00 per 1M). Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K, 2.3× 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, Mistral Large 2 handles text while Amazon Nova Lite handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.
Amazon Nova Lite is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Mistral Large 2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Mistral Large 2 is usually picked for coding llm and multilingual workloads, while Amazon Nova Lite sees more deployments in customer support and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Mistral Large 2 | Amazon Nova Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | Other |
| Released | Jul 2024 | Dec 2024 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 300K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $2.00 / 1M tokens | $0.060 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $6.00 / 1M tokens | $0.24 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | , |
| Open weights | Yes (Mistral Research License) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$15.00 vs $0.540
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$150 vs $5.40
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$336 vs $10.44
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $15.00 vs $0.540 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $150 vs $5.40 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $336 vs $10.44 per month, model B comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Mistral Large 2$0.500
- Amazon Nova Lite$0.018
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU84.0
- HumanEval92.0
Mistral Large 2 fits when…
- Strong code and math
- EU data residency
- Multilingual
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Amazon Nova Lite fits when…
- Very cheap
- AWS-native
- Multimodal
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 25.0× cheaper than Mistral Large 2 on output tokens.
- Long-context tasks, handles 300K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Large 2.
Consider Mistral Medium
Mistral's mid-tier balanced model, production-ready at competitive pricing.
Frequently asked
Is Mistral Large 2 or Amazon Nova Lite cheaper?
Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.24 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $6.00 / 1M tokens for Mistral Large 2.Which has the larger context window?
Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Large 2.Is Mistral Large 2 or Amazon Nova Lite better for coding?
Both Mistral Large 2 and Amazon Nova Lite 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?
Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License). Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.When were Mistral Large 2 and Amazon Nova Lite released?
Mistral Large 2 was released by Mistral on 2024-07-24. Amazon Nova Lite was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
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