Ministral 8B Instruct vs Nova Lite vs Phi-4-mini
Nova Lite comes out ahead, 77 to 58 and 57 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
- Our pick
AmazonNova Lite
77/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context300K
MicrosoftPhi-4-mini
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.075 / $0.30
- Context128K
Nova Lite is our pick
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Phi-4-mini (58) and Ministral 8B Instruct (57). 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 · Phi-4-mini $0.131 · Ministral 8B Instruct $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Phi-4-mini 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsNova LiteMinistral 8B Instruct: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Phi-4-mini: Text
- Self-hostingMinistral 8B Instruct and Phi-4-miniPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 8B Instruct | Nova Lite | Phi-4-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 89 | 96 | 92 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 39 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 57/100 | 77/100 | 58/100 |
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 | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI | Nova LiteAmazon | Phi-4-miniMicrosoft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 27.2% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.06 (best) | $0.075 |
| Output | $0.15 (best) | $0.24 | $0.30 |
| Cached input | — | $0.015 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.105 (best) | $0.131 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Amazon Bedrock API | Official Azure API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 300,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 10,000 tokens (best) | 4,096 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 | OpenMistral Research License | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | amazon.nova-lite-v1:0 | phi-4-mini |
| API providers | 1 | 3 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 16, 2024 | Dec 3, 2024 | Dec 11, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Oct 2024 | Oct 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
- Nova Lite$1.08
- Phi-4-mini$1.35
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct, Nova Lite or Phi-4-mini?
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Phi-4-mini (58) and Ministral 8B Instruct (57). 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, Ministral 8B Instruct, Nova Lite or Phi-4-mini?
Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Phi-4-mini costs $0.075 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Azure API price); Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.105 per million tokens for Nova Lite versus $0.131 for Phi-4-mini (1.2× as much) and $0.15 for Ministral 8B Instruct (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet, Nova Lite has not been scored yet and Phi-4-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct, Nova Lite and Phi-4-mini 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 Phi-4-mini. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Nova Lite up to 10,000, Phi-4-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Phi-4-mini accepts text. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Ministral 8B Instruct and Phi-4-mini publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) and can be self-hosted; Nova Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Phi-4-mini is the newest, released Dec 11, 2024. Nova Lite came out Dec 3, 2024; Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Nova Lite Oct 2024, Phi-4-mini Oct 2023.
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.
