Noometry

Model comparison

Mistral Small 3 vs Nova 2 Lite

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.

Mistral Small 3 Mistral AI

31.2

Rank #278 Confirmed

Nova 2 Lite Amazon

39.7

Rank #161 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nova 2 Lite leads 53.9 to 32.2.
  • Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Nova 2 Lite.
  • Nova 2 Lite accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 33K.
  • Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Mistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
ProviderMistral AIAmazon
Noometry Index31.239.7
Released2025-01-302025-12-01
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window33K1M
Max output16K64K
Input $ / M tokens$0.05$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$0.08$2.50
Results tracked2419

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Coding12461385
BigCodeBench Instruct45.3%—
BigCodeBench Complete50.4%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Mistral Small 3: —, Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—27.1%

Reasoning Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Hard Prompts12331364
Chess Puzzles0%—
Epoch Capabilities Index127.07—

Math Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Math12401359
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20256.7%—

Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Expert12021358
GPQA Diamond47.3%—
Confabulations25.2%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—5.1%

Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Non-English11981337
LMArena Chinese12041364
LMArena French12031381
LMArena German12111343
LMArena Japanese11111271
LMArena Korean11881284
LMArena Russian12161343
LMArena Spanish—1373

Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Instruction Following12141335

Long Context Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Longer Query12461335

Writing & Preference Nova 2 Lite leads

Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

BenchmarkMistral Small 3Nova 2 Lite
LMArena Text12341362
LMArena Creative Writing11951291
LMArena Multi-Turn12171338
EQ-Bench Creative Writing707—

Frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Small 3 better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nova 2 Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Nova 2 Lite?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Nova 2 Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Mistral Small 3 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

Nova 2 Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.7 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nova 2 Lite does, with 1M tokens against 33K.

How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Nova 2 Lite share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.

Related comparisons

Go deeper