LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Mistral Nemo 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.

Updated

Mistral Nemo specs · Amazon Nova Lite specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite publishes pricing ($0.24 / 1M output tokens) while Mistral Nemo does not.

  • 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 Nemo.

  • OpennessMistral Nemo

    Mistral Nemo ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

On balance Amazon Nova Lite edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Mistral Nemo's 1. Amazon Nova Lite publishes pricing ($0.24 / 1M output tokens) while Mistral Nemo does not. 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 Nemo handles text while Amazon Nova Lite handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Mistral Nemo ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

Amazon Nova Lite is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Mistral Nemo, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Mistral Nemo is usually picked for edge deployment and local llm 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

SpecMistral NemoAmazon Nova Lite
ProviderMistralOther
ReleasedJul 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window128K tokens300K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.060 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.24 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Apache-2.0)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 $0.540
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $5.40
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $10.44

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.

  • Mistral NemoPricing unavailable
  • 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.

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

Mistral Nemo fits when…

  • Apache-2.0
  • Single-GPU fit
  • Multilingual
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Pick Amazon Nova Lite if

Amazon Nova Lite fits when…

  • Very cheap
  • AWS-native
  • Multimodal
  • Long-context tasks, handles 300K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Nemo.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Mistral Large 2

Mistral's flagship API model, strong on code and reasoning, EU-friendly hosting.

See Mistral Large 2 specsMistral Nemo vs Mistral Large 2Amazon Nova Lite vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Mistral Nemo or Amazon Nova Lite 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?
    Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Nemo.
  • Is Mistral Nemo or Amazon Nova Lite better for coding?
    Both Mistral Nemo 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 Nemo ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.
  • When were Mistral Nemo and Amazon Nova Lite released?
    Mistral Nemo was released by Mistral on 2024-07-18. Amazon Nova Lite was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.