Model Comparison

Codestral-22B vs Nova LiteWhich is better in 2026?

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Codestral-22B vs Nova Lite — which is better?

Codestral-22B (by Mistral AI) and Nova Lite (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.

Codestral-22B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nova Lite is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval). Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Codestral-22B if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Nova Lite if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2024

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Codestral-22B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nova Lite is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval).

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 05 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nova Lite specifies input context (300,000 tokens). Only Nova Lite specifies output context (2,048 tokens).

Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Amazon
Nova Lite
Input300,000 tokens
Output2,048 tokens
Sun Jul 05 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Nova Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Codestral-22B does not.

Nova Lite can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Codestral-22B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nova Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Codestral-22B is licensed under MNPL-0.1, while Nova Lite uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Codestral-22B

MNPL-0.1

Open weights

Nova Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29, while Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20.

Nova Lite is 6 months newer than Codestral-22B.

Codestral-22B

May 29, 2024

2.1 years ago

Nova Lite

Nov 20, 2024

1.6 years ago

5mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Has open weights
Amazon
Larger context window (300,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher HumanEval score (85.4% vs 81.1%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Codestral-22B and Nova Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Codestral-22B
✓ Preferred
Nova Lite
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Amazon
Nova Lite

FAQ

Common questions about Codestral-22B vs Nova Lite.

Which is better, Codestral-22B or Nova Lite?

Nova Lite significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Codestral-22B is made by Mistral AI and Nova Lite is made by Amazon. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Codestral-22B compare to Nova Lite in benchmarks?

Codestral-22B scores HumanEvalFIM-Average: 91.6%, HumanEval: 81.1%, MBPP: 78.2%, Spider: 63.5%, HumanEval-Average: 61.5%. Nova Lite scores GSM8k: 94.5%, ARC-C: 92.4%, DocVQA: 92.4%, IFEval: 89.7%, Translation en→Set1 COMET22: 88.8%.

What are the context window sizes for Codestral-22B and Nova Lite?

Codestral-22B supports an unknown number of tokens and Nova Lite supports 300K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Codestral-22B and Nova Lite?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MNPL-0.1 vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Codestral-22B and Nova Lite?

Codestral-22B is developed by Mistral AI and Nova Lite is developed by Amazon.

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