Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct vs Nova Lite
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Nova Lite are closely matched at 8.4 and 7.6 on the LLM Stats Score. Nova Lite is 1.0x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Amazon · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Nova Lite are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 8.4 and 7.6.
In the 6 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Nova Lite also accepts a larger context window (300,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 6 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Nova Lite
- you process long inputs — it offers a 300,000 token context window
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
15 reported for Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct · 27 for Nova Lite
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct outperforms in 4 benchmarks (ChartQA, DocVQA, GPQA, MMMU), while Nova Lite is better at 1 benchmark (MATH).
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Nova Lite ($0.06/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens) is 1.2x cheaper than Nova Lite ($0.24/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is more expensive than Nova Lite.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Nova Lite accepts 300,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Nova Lite is limited to 2,048 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Nova Lite support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
Nova Lite
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Nova Lite 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 3.2 24B Instruct was released on 2025-06-20, while Nova Lite was released on 2024-11-20.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is 7 months newer than Nova Lite.
Jun 20, 2025
1.2 years ago
7mo newerNov 20, 2024
1.8 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Nova Lite's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Nova Lite's cutoff date.
Oct 2023
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Provider Availability
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra. Nova Lite is available from Bedrock.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
Nova Lite
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Nova Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct vs Nova Lite.
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