Amazon Nova Micro vs o3
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Amazon Nova Micro specs · o3 specs- PriceAmazon Nova Micro
Amazon Nova Micro is roughly 57.1× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $8.00 per 1M).
- Context windowo3
o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× 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.
- Modalitieso3
o3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Amazon Nova Micro.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance o3 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Amazon Nova Micro's 1. Amazon Nova Micro is roughly 57.1× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $8.00 per 1M). o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× 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, Amazon Nova Micro handles text while o3 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
o3 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. Amazon Nova Micro is usually picked for cheapest llm and fastest llm workloads, while o3 sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Amazon Nova Micro | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | OpenAI |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.035 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $0.14 / 1M tokens | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | No | 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$0.315 vs $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$3.15 vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$6.09 vs $348
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $0.315 vs $18.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $3.15 vs $180 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $6.09 vs $348 per month, model A comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Amazon Nova Micro$0.011
- o3$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval,95.0
- GPQA,87.7
Amazon Nova Micro fits when…
- Lowest-cost frontier-lab model
- Native AWS integration
- Generous 128k context for the price tier
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 57.1× cheaper than o3 on output tokens.
o3 fits when…
- Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
- Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
- Tool-use during reasoning loops
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Amazon Nova Micro.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider DBRX
Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.
Frequently asked
Is Amazon Nova Micro or o3 cheaper?
Amazon Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for o3.Which has the larger context window?
o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Amazon Nova Micro.Is Amazon Nova Micro or o3 better for coding?
Both Amazon Nova Micro and o3 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?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Amazon Nova Micro and o3 released?
Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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