AI model comparison
Mistral Small 3 vs Nova Lite 1.0
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Mistral
Mistral Small 3
Mistral Small 3 is a 24B-parameter language model optimized for low-latency performance across common AI tasks.
- Input / 1M
- $0.05
- Output / 1M
- $0.08
- Context
- 33K
Amazon
Nova Lite 1.0
Amazon Nova Lite 1.0 is a very low-cost multimodal model from Amazon that focused on fast processing of image, video, and text inputs to generate text output.
- Input / 1M
- $0.06
- Output / 1M
- $0.24
- Context
- 300K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Mistral Small 3
1.7x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Tie
6.7 vs 6.7 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Nova Lite 1.0
300K vs 33K tokens
Newer release
Mistral Small 3
Released January 30, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Mistral Small 36.7Nova Lite 1.06.7Coding index
Mistral Small 3Not availableNova Lite 1.0Not availableAgentic index
Mistral Small 3Not availableNova Lite 1.0Not availablePricing
Mistral Small 3 vs Nova Lite 1.0 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3 | Nova Lite 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.06 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.08 | $0.24 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Mistral Small 3$0.14Nova Lite 1.0$0.24Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Mistral Small 3$1.82Nova Lite 1.0$2.76Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Mistral Small 3$7.66Nova Lite 1.0$9.48Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3 | Nova Lite 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 33K tokens | 300K tokens |
| Max output | 16K tokens | 5K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | January 30, 2025 | December 5, 2024 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3 | Nova Lite 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Not supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Not supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Mistral Small 3View full model details- Mistral Small 3 vs gpt-oss-20b
- Mistral Small 3 vs Mistral Nemo
- Mistral Small 3 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
- Mistral Small 3 vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Mistral Small 3 vs Ministral 3 8B 2512
- Mistral Small 3 vs Ministral 3 3B 2512
- Mistral Small 3 vs Phi 4
- Mistral Small 3 vs Ministral 3 14B 2512
- Mistral Small 3 vs Granite 4.0 Micro
- Mistral Small 3 vs Gemma 3 4B
Nova Lite 1.0View full model details- Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-4o-mini
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 32B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Qwen3 14B
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Llama 4 Scout
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs GPT-4.1 Nano
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Reka Flash 3
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Ministral 3 14B 2512
- Nova Lite 1.0 vs Phi 4
Our take
Mistral Small 3 is 1.7x cheaper for a typical chat. Nova Lite 1.0 has the larger context window (300K vs 33K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Small 3 or Nova Lite 1.0 cheaper?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Mistral Small 3 costs $0.05 per 1M input tokens and $0.08 per 1M output tokens, while Nova Lite 1.0 costs $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.24 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Mistral Small 3 or Nova Lite 1.0?
Nova Lite 1.0 supports up to 300K tokens of context, compared with 33K for Mistral Small 3.
Is Mistral Small 3 smarter than Nova Lite 1.0?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Mistral Small 3 scores 6.7 and Nova Lite 1.0 scores 6.7, putting Mistral Small 3 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Mistral Small 3 and Nova Lite 1.0 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Mistral Small 3 and Nova Lite 1.0 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Mistral Small 3 and Nova Lite 1.0 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.