# Mistral Small 3 vs Nova 2 Lite

> Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 30.9 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-nova-2-lite
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## 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 54.1 to 32.4.
- 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.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 39.0 |
| Rank | 268 | 161 |
| Context | 33K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.1 (#131)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1386 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 23.9 (#114)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
- Nova 2 Lite: 26.4 (#120)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1364 |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.06 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
- Nova 2 Lite: 34.8 (#154)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
- Nova 2 Lite: 42.5 (#88)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1360 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.3 (#148)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1202 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | 1273 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1372 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.7 (#156)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#145)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
- Nova 2 Lite: 54.1 (#150)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1338 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Nova 2 Lite?

Nova 2 Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 30.9 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: 40.1 versus 36.0 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.