Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct vs Nova Micro
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Nova Micro is 1.5x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Amazon · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH), while Nova Micro is better at 1 benchmark (IFEval). Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
On price, Nova Micro is roughly 1.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Nova Micro also accepts a larger context window (128,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 4 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Nova Micro
- cost matters — it's about 1.5x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH), while Nova Micro is better at 1 benchmark (IFEval).
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens) is 2.3x more expensive than Nova Micro ($0.03/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.14/1M tokens) costs the same as Nova Micro ($0.14/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is more expensive than Nova Micro.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Nova Micro accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,000 tokens. Nova Micro can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,000 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct 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.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30, while Nova Micro was released on 2024-11-20.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 2 months newer than Nova Micro.
Jan 30, 2025
1.6 years ago
2mo newerNov 20, 2024
1.8 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Nova Micro's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nova Micro's cutoff date.
Oct 2023
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Provider Availability
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI. Nova Micro is available from Bedrock.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Nova Micro
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct and Nova Micro side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct vs Nova Micro.