LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Amazon Nova Micro vs Qwen3-72B

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 · Qwen3-72B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Micro

    Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not.

  • 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.

  • OpennessQwen3-72B

    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Amazon Nova Micro and Qwen3-72B: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Amazon Nova Micro publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not. 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. Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.

Qwen3-72B is the newer of the two, released 5 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 Qwen3-72B sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecAmazon Nova MicroQwen3-72B
ProviderOtherAlibaba
ReleasedDec 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.035 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.14 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Apache-2.0)
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$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).

Price calculator

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
  • Qwen3-72BPricing 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 MicroQwen3-72B
  • MMLU,84.0
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
Pick Qwen3-72B if

Qwen3-72B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 license
  • Strongest open-weight on Chinese
  • Strong multilingual coverage
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Don't want either?

Consider DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsAmazon Nova Micro vs DBRXQwen3-72B vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is Amazon Nova Micro or Qwen3-72B 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?
    Both Amazon Nova Micro and Qwen3-72B ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Amazon Nova Micro or Qwen3-72B better for coding?
    Both Amazon Nova Micro and Qwen3-72B 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?
    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Amazon Nova Micro is API-only.
  • When were Amazon Nova Micro and Qwen3-72B released?
    Amazon Nova Micro was released by Other on 2024-12-03. Qwen3-72B was released by Alibaba on 2025-04-29.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

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