Nova 2 Lite vs Mistral Medium 3
Nova 2 Lite leads Mistral Medium 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 13.4 to 9.0, and Mistral Medium 3 costs 1.3x less per output token ($2.00 vs $2.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Nova 2 Lite for a larger context window (1M against 131K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: hard prompts, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- Nova 2 Lite only
- 2
- Mistral Medium 3 only
- 28
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite leads, 13.4 against 9.0.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1079.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nova 2 Lite
Nova 2 Lite takes 1M tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Medium 3
Nova 2 Lite $0.0015, Mistral Medium 3 $0.0014 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nova 2 Lite not benchmarked, Mistral Medium 3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 4.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: creative writing: Nova 2 Lite 1292 against Mistral Medium 3 1343, 8.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nova 2 Lite $2.50 against Mistral Medium 3 $2.00 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- Nova 2 Lite takes 1M tokens, Mistral Medium 3 131K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Nova 2 Lite | Bars | Mistral Medium 3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 1 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 1 | ||
| General | 2 | 15 | ||
| All shared boards | 11 | 18 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 23.0 | Not measured | Only Nova 2 Lite measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 236.3 | Not measured | Only Nova 2 Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1385 | 1385 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1394 | 1385 | Nova 2 Lite |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.4 | 9.0 | Nova 2 Lite |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 134.0 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 24.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 57.8% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1364 | 1364 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1359 | 1342 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1385 | 1374 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1155 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1165 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 30.3 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 30.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1359 | 1353 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1369 | 1354 | Nova 2 Lite |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1382 | 1381 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1386 | 1381 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1359 | 1384 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1369 | 1352 | Nova 2 Lite |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1079 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1024 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1018 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1034 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1084 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1069 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index215
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 39.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 31.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1362 | 1370 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1335 | 1338 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1292 | 1343 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1157 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1385 | 1385 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1337 | 1353 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1364 | 1374 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1343 | 1377 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1273 | 1316 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1281 | 1304 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1381 | 1368 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1375 | 1364 | Nova 2 Lite |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1342 | 1359 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1327 | 1371 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1338 | 1384 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1335 | 1360 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1318 | 1352 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1309 | 1335 | Mistral Medium 3 |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1172 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1161 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1154 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1145 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1094 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1141 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1146 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Medium 3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nova 2 Lite costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nova 2 Lite costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Amazon Nova 2 Lite | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Amazon | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 2, 2025 | May 7, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.40 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $2.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nova 2 Lite better than Mistral Medium 3 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova 2 Lite for a larger context window (1M against 131K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: hard prompts, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3?
Nova 2 Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 and $2.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3?
Nova 2 Lite, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Nova 2 Lite vs Mistral Medium 3 comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Nova 2 Lite's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Mistral Medium 3's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.