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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Nova Micro vs Ministral 3B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Nova Micro 62, Ministral 3B 61). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Amazon

    Nova Micro

    Released Dec 3, 2024

    62/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.035 / $0.14
    • Context128K
  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    61/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Nova Micro 62/100, Ministral 3B 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nova Micro on price. 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 · Ministral 3B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameNova Micro 128,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsNova Micro: Text · Ministral 3B: Text
  • Self-hostingMinistral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNova MicroMinistral 3B
Price50%10097
Inputs & features30%2525
Context window20%2424
Overall100%62/10061/100

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.

Nova Micro vs Ministral 3B specifications side by side
SpecificationNova MicroAmazonMinistral 3BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—118.1
ECI rank—#144 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—25.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.035 (best)$0.10
Output$0.14$0.10 (best)
Cached input$0.0088—
Blended (3:1)$0.061 (best)$0.10
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Amazon Bedrock APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output10,000 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDamazon.nova-micro-v1:0—
API providers3 (best)1
ReleasedDec 3, 2024Oct 16, 2024
Knowledge cutoffOct 2024Mar 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.

  • Nova Micro$0.63
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Nova Micro or Ministral 3B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Nova Micro 62/100, Ministral 3B 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nova Micro on price. 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, Nova Micro or Ministral 3B?

Nova Micro is cheaper at $0.035 input / $0.14 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). 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 $0.10 for Ministral 3B (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Nova Micro has not been scored yet and Ministral 3B has an ECI of 118.1.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nova Micro and Ministral 3B 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 Micro and Ministral 3B share the same 128,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Nova Micro up to 10,000, Ministral 3B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Nova Micro accepts text; Ministral 3B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Nova Micro is the newest, released Dec 3, 2024. Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Nova Micro Oct 2024, Ministral 3B Mar 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.