Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Nova Lite vs Ministral 8B Instruct
Nova Lite comes out ahead, 77 to 57 and 56 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
56/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
- Our pick
AmazonNova Lite
77/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context300K
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
Nova Lite is our pick
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (57) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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 LiteNova Lite $0.105 · Ministral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsNova LiteLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Nova Lite | Ministral 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 88 | 96 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 39 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 77/100 | 57/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Nova LiteAmazon | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 116.6 | — | — |
| ECI rank | #145 of 148 | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 27.0% | — | 27.2% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 1.7% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.152 | $0.06 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.167 | $0.24 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.015 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.156 | $0.105 (best) | $0.15 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 9 providers | Official Amazon Bedrock API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 300,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 10,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenMistral Research License |
| API model ID | — | amazon.nova-lite-v1:0 | — |
| API providers | 9 (best) | 3 | 1 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Dec 3, 2024 | Oct 16, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Oct 2024 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
- Nova Lite$1.08
- Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Nova Lite or Ministral 8B Instruct?
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (57) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Nova Lite or Ministral 8B Instruct?
Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.105 per million tokens for Nova Lite versus $0.15 for Ministral 8B Instruct (1.4× as much) and $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct has an ECI of 116.6, Nova Lite has not been scored yet and Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Nova Lite and Ministral 8B Instruct 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?
Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Nova Lite up to 10,000, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 8B Instruct publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) and can be self-hosted; Nova Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nova Lite is the newest, released Dec 3, 2024. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Nova Lite 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.
