Model Comparison
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Nova MicroWhich is better in 2026?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Nova Micro is 104.3x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Nova Micro — which is better?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (by Anthropic) and Nova Micro (by Amazon) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 6 benchmarks (DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU), while Nova Micro is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Nova Micro is roughly 104.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 6 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
Choose Nova Micro if…
- cost matters — it's about 104.3x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2024
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 6 benchmarks (DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU), while Nova Micro is better at 0 benchmarks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Nova Micro ($0.03/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 107.1x more expensive than Nova Micro ($0.14/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is more expensive than Nova Micro.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Nova Micro's 128,000 tokens. Claude 3.5 Sonnet can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Nova Micro is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nova Micro does not.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Nova Micro
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while Nova Micro was released on 2024-11-20.
Nova Micro is 1 month newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Oct 22, 2024
1.6 years ago
Nov 20, 2024
1.6 years ago
4w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Nova Micro is available from Bedrock.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Nova Micro
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
View detailsAnthropic
Nova Micro
View detailsAmazon
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Nova Micro.