Amazon Nova Micro vs o4
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 · o4 specs- PriceAmazon Nova Micro
Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not.
- Context windowo4
o4 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.
- Modalitieso4
o4 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Amazon Nova Micro.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance o4 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Amazon Nova Micro's 1. Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not. o4 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 o4 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
o4 is the newer of the two, released 13 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 o4 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 | o4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | OpenAI |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Dec 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.035 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $0.14 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| 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 ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$3.15 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$6.09 vs ,
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).
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
- o4Pricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
Amazon Nova Micro fits when…
- Lowest-cost frontier-lab model
- Native AWS integration
- Generous 128k context for the price tier
o4 fits when…
- Exceptional performance on hard math and reasoning benchmarks
- Good at multi-step planning and verification
- Strong scientific reasoning
- 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 o4 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?
o4 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Amazon Nova Micro.Is Amazon Nova Micro or o4 better for coding?
Both Amazon Nova Micro and o4 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 o4 released?
Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03. o4 was released by OpenAI on 2025-12-15.
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