Model comparison
Mistral Large 3 vs Nova 2 Lite
Mistral Large 3 and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.1 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Large 3 scores higher in 5 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 3 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Nova 2 Lite leads 27.5 to 15.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 14.5% for Mistral Large 3 and 5.1% for Nova 2 Lite.
- Mistral Large 3 is cheaper at $0.25 / $0.75 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
- Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Mistral Large 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 39.1 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2025-12-02 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Max output | 8K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 19 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Nova 2 Lite leads
Mistral Large 3: 34.4 (#237), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1448 | 1385 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1230 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Mistral Large 3: —, Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads
Mistral Large 3: 15.2 (#319), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1429 | 1364 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 50.9% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 7.5% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 23% | — |
Math Mistral Large 3 leads
Mistral Large 3: 38.7 (#129), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1414 | 1359 |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
Mistral Large 3: 36.0 (#177), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 14.5% | 5.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1421 | 1358 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Large 3: 38.2 (#66), Nova 2 Lite: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1221 | — |
Multilingual Mistral Large 3 leads
Mistral Large 3: 52.5 (#84), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1413 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1447 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1455 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1437 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1394 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1384 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1411 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1440 | 1373 |
Instruction Following Mistral Large 3 leads
Mistral Large 3: 74.0 (#108), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1403 | 1335 |
Long Context Mistral Large 3 leads
Mistral Large 3: 43.1 (#105), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1413 | 1335 |
Writing & Preference Mistral Large 3 leads
Mistral Large 3: 60.0 (#101), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1428 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1386 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1429 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1412 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Large 3 better than Nova 2 Lite?
Mistral Large 3 and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.1 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 3 or Nova 2 Lite?
Mistral Large 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Is Mistral Large 3 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Large 3 and Nova 2 Lite share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Large 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.