Model Comparison

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Nova MicroWhich is better in 2026?

Nova Micro significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Nova Micro — which is better?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) (by Mistral AI) 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.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nova Micro is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU). Nova Micro significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Nova Micro if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nova Micro is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU).

Nova Micro significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Nova Micro specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Nova Micro specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Amazon
Nova Micro
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Nova Micro does not.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nova Micro

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Nova Micro uses a proprietary license.

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

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Nova Micro

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) was released on 2025-12-04, while Nova Micro was released on 2024-11-20.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is 13 months newer than Nova Micro.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

7 months ago

1.0yr newer
Nova Micro

Nov 20, 2024

1.7 years ago

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
Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights
Amazon
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Higher MMLU score (77.6% vs 76.1%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Nova Micro side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
✓ Preferred
Nova Micro
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Amazon
Nova Micro

FAQ

Common questions about Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Nova Micro.

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) or Nova Micro?

Nova Micro significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is made by Mistral AI and Nova Micro is made by Amazon. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) compare to Nova Micro in benchmarks?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) scores MMLU-Redux: 79.3%, MMLU: 76.1%, Multilingual MMLU: 70.6%, TriviaQA: 68.1%, MATH (CoT): 62.6%. Nova Micro scores GSM8k: 92.3%, ARC-C: 90.2%, Translation Set1→en COMET22: 88.7%, Translation en→Set1 COMET22: 88.5%, IFEval: 87.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Nova Micro?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) supports an unknown number of tokens and Nova Micro 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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Nova Micro?

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

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Nova Micro?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is developed by Mistral AI and Nova Micro is developed by Amazon.

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