Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct vs Nova Lite vs Hermes 3 70B Instruct
Nova Lite comes out ahead, 58 to 25 and 10 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
NVIDIANemotron Mini 4B Instruct
25/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context128K
- Our pick
AmazonNova Lite
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context300K
Nous ResearchHermes 3 70B Instruct
10/100- ECI—
- Price$0.70 / $0.70
- Context131K
Nova Lite is our pick
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct (25) and Hermes 3 70B Instruct (10). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 · Hermes 3 70B Instruct $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct unpriced
- Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Hermes 3 70B Instruct 131,072 · Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsNova LiteNemotron Mini 4B Instruct: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Hermes 3 70B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingNemotron Mini 4B Instruct and Hermes 3 70B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct | Nova Lite | Hermes 3 70B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 25 | 70 | 0 |
| Context window | 40% | 24 | 39 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 25/100 | 58/100 | 10/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Nemotron Mini 4B InstructNVIDIA | Nova LiteAmazon | Hermes 3 70B InstructNous Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $0.06 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | — | $0.24 (best) | $0.70 |
| Cached input | — | $0.015 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $0.105 (best) | $0.70 |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Official Amazon Bedrock API | Median of 5 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 300,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 10,000 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| 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 | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | amazon.nova-lite-v1:0 | — |
| API providers | — | 8 (best) | 5 |
| Released | Aug 21, 2024 | Dec 3, 2024 | Aug 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Oct 2024 | Dec 31, 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct—
- Nova Lite$1.08
- Hermes 3 70B Instruct$8.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct, Nova Lite or Hermes 3 70B Instruct?
Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct (25) and Hermes 3 70B Instruct (10). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct, Nova Lite or Hermes 3 70B Instruct?
Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Hermes 3 70B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (median across 5 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 $0.70 for Hermes 3 70B Instruct (6.7× as much). Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct has not been scored yet, Nova Lite has not been scored yet and Hermes 3 70B Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct, Nova Lite and Hermes 3 70B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Hermes 3 70B Instruct does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Hermes 3 70B Instruct and 128,000 for Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct up to 8,192, Nova Lite up to 10,000, Hermes 3 70B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Hermes 3 70B Instruct accepts text. Nova Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct and Hermes 3 70B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Nova Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nova Lite is the newest, released Dec 3, 2024. Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct came out Aug 21, 2024; Hermes 3 70B Instruct came out Aug 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Nova Lite Oct 2024, Hermes 3 70B Instruct Dec 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
