Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Pixtral-12BWhich is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Pixtral-12B — which is better?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 (by NVIDIA) and Pixtral-12B (by Mistral AI) 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.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (IFEval, MT-Bench), while Pixtral-12B is better at 0 benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025

Choose Pixtral-12B if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (IFEval, MT-Bench), while Pixtral-12B is better at 0 benchmarks.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

4.4B diff

Pixtral-12B has 4.4B more parameters than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1, making it 55.0% larger.

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
8.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
12.4Bparameters
8.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
12.4B
Pixtral-12B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Pixtral-12B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Pixtral-12B specifies output context (8,192 tokens).

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Pixtral-12B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 does not.

Pixtral-12B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Pixtral-12B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Pixtral-12B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Pixtral-12B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 was released on 2025-03-18, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is 6 months newer than Pixtral-12B.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Mar 18, 2025

1.4 years ago

6mo newer
Pixtral-12B

Sep 17, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while Pixtral-12B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Pixtral-12B's cutoff date.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1

Dec 2023

Pixtral-12B

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

NVIDIA
Higher IFEval score (79.3% vs 61.3%)
Higher MT-Bench score (81.0% vs 76.8%)
Mistral AI
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Pixtral-12B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
✓ Preferred
Pixtral-12B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 vs Pixtral-12B.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 or Pixtral-12B?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is made by NVIDIA and Pixtral-12B is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 compare to Pixtral-12B in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 scores MATH-500: 95.4%, MBPP: 84.6%, MT-Bench: 81.0%, IFEval: 79.3%, BFCL v2: 63.6%. Pixtral-12B scores DocVQA: 90.7%, ChartQA: 81.8%, VQAv2: 78.6%, MT-Bench: 76.8%, HumanEval: 72.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Pixtral-12B?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 supports an unknown number of tokens and Pixtral-12B supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Pixtral-12B?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 and Pixtral-12B?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Nano 8B V1 is developed by NVIDIA and Pixtral-12B is developed by Mistral AI.

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