ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.2 vs Nova Lite

Nova Lite comes out ahead, 77 to 64 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    64/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2
  2. Our pick

    Amazon

    Nova Lite

    Released Dec 3, 2024

    77/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.06 / $0.24
    • Context300K
    Full specs Remove Nova Lite

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Nova Lite is our pick

Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (64). 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsNova LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.2Nova Lite
Price50%8996
Inputs & features30%5070
Context window20%2439
Overall100%64/10077/100

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.

Mistral Small 3.2 vs Nova Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.2Mistral AINova LiteAmazon
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)131.7—
ECI rank#123 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.1%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.3%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.06 (best)
Output$0.30$0.24 (best)
Cached input—$0.015
Blended (3:1)$0.15$0.105 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Amazon Bedrock API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens300,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)10,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDmistral-small-2506amazon.nova-lite-v1:0
API providers6 (best)3
ReleasedJun 20, 2025Dec 3, 2024
Knowledge cutoffMar 2025Oct 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.

  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
  • Nova Lite$1.08
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2 or Nova Lite?

Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (64). 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, Mistral Small 3.2 or Nova Lite?

Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). 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 Mistral Small 3.2 (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mistral Small 3.2 has an ECI of 131.7 and Nova Lite has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.2 and Nova Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Nova Lite up to 10,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Nova Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Nova Lite came out Dec 3, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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