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Mistral Small 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

Mistral Small specs · Amazon Nova Micro specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Micro

    Amazon Nova Micro is roughly 4.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $0.60 per 1M).

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

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

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessMistral Small

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

It's a genuine coin-flip between Mistral Small and Amazon Nova Micro: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Amazon Nova Micro is roughly 4.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $0.60 per 1M). Both ship a 128K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Mistral Small ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

Amazon Nova Micro is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Mistral Small, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Mistral Small is usually picked for cheapest llm and fastest llm 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

SpecMistral SmallAmazon Nova Micro
ProviderMistralOther
ReleasedSep 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.20 / 1M tokens$0.035 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.60 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 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$1.50 vs $0.315
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$15.00 vs $3.15
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$33.60 vs $6.09

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $1.50 vs $0.315 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $15.00 vs $3.15 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $33.60 vs $6.09 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

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

  • Mistral Small$0.050
  • 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 Mistral Small if

Mistral Small fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 open-weight
  • Fast and cheap
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
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
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 4.3× cheaper than Mistral Small on output tokens.
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 Small vs Mistral Large 2Amazon Nova Micro vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Mistral Small or Amazon Nova Micro cheaper?
    Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $0.60 / 1M tokens for Mistral Small.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Mistral Small and Amazon Nova Micro ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Mistral Small or Amazon Nova Micro better for coding?
    Both Mistral Small 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?
    Mistral Small ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.
  • When were Mistral Small and Amazon Nova Micro released?
    Mistral Small was released by Mistral on 2024-09-18. Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
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