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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Nova Micro

Gemma 3 4B IT comes out ahead, 70 to 62 and 61 on our weighted score.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemma 3 4B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI116.1
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 4B IT

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    61/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 3B

  3. Amazon

    Nova Micro

    Released Dec 3, 2024

    62/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.035 / $0.14
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Nova Micro
01 — Verdict

Gemma 3 4B IT is our pick

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Nova Micro (62) and Ministral 3B (61). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceNova MicroNova Micro $0.061 · Gemma 3 4B IT $0.063 · Ministral 3B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT 131,072 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Nova Micro 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT: Text, Images · Ministral 3B: Text · Nova Micro: Text
  • Self-hostingGemma 3 4B IT and Ministral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 4B ITMinistral 3BNova Micro
Price50%10097100
Inputs & features30%502525
Context window20%242424
Overall100%70/10061/10062/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Nova Micro specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 4B ITGoogleMinistral 3BMistral AINova MicroAmazon
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.1118.1 (best)—
ECI rank#146 of 148#144 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions23.2%25.3% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.5%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05$0.10$0.035 (best)
Output$0.10 (best)$0.10 (best)$0.14
Cached input——$0.0088
Blended (3:1)$0.063$0.10$0.061 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 7 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Amazon Bedrock API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens10,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID——amazon.nova-micro-v1:0
API providers7 (best)13
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Oct 16, 2024Dec 3, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Mar 2024Oct 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemma 3 4B IT$0.70
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Nova Micro$0.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B or Nova Micro?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Nova Micro (62) and Ministral 3B (61). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B or Nova Micro?

Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.035 input / $0.14 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Gemma 3 4B IT costs $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 7 API providers); Ministral 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.061 per million tokens for Nova Micro versus $0.063 for Gemma 3 4B IT (1× as much) and $0.10 for Ministral 3B (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemma 3 4B IT has an ECI of 116.1, Ministral 3B has an ECI of 118.1 and Nova Micro has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B and Nova Micro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 4B IT has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Nova Micro. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 4B IT up to 131,072, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Nova Micro up to 10,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 4B IT accepts text and images; Ministral 3B accepts text; Nova Micro accepts text. Gemma 3 4B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Gemma 3 4B IT and Ministral 3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Nova Micro is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Nova Micro came out Dec 3, 2024; Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 4B IT Aug 2024, Ministral 3B Mar 2024, Nova Micro Oct 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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