Model Comparison
Mistral Small vs Nova ProWhich is better in 2026?
Comparing Mistral Small and Nova Pro across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Verdict: Mistral Small vs Nova Pro — which is better?
Mistral Small (by Mistral AI) and Nova Pro (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.
On price, Mistral Small is roughly 4.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Nova Pro also accepts a larger context window (300,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral Small if…
- cost matters — it's about 4.7x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Nova Pro if…
- you process long inputs — it offers a 300,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2024
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Small and Nova Prodon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small ($0.20/1M tokens) is 4.0x cheaper than Nova Pro ($0.80/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small ($0.60/1M tokens) is 5.3x cheaper than Nova Pro ($3.20/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Nova Pro is more expensive than Mistral Small.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Nova Pro accepts 300,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small's 32,768 tokens. Nova Pro can generate longer responses up to 300,000 tokens, while Mistral Small is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Nova Pro supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small does not.
Nova Pro can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Small
Nova Pro
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Small is licensed under Mistral Research License, while Nova Pro uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Mistral Research License
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17, while Nova Pro was released on 2024-11-20.
Nova Pro is 2 months newer than Mistral Small.
Sep 17, 2024
1.7 years ago
Nov 20, 2024
1.6 years ago
2mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mistral Small is available from Mistral AI. Nova Pro is available from Bedrock.
Mistral Small
Nova Pro
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral Small
View detailsMistral AI
Nova Pro
View detailsAmazon
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small vs Nova Pro.