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Nova 2 Lite vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral Medium 3.5 leads Nova 2 Lite on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 14.2 to 13.4, and Nova 2 Lite costs 3.0x less per output token ($2.50 vs $7.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 30 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Nova 2 Lite Replace Mistral Medium 3.5
Nova 2 LiteAmazon
Coding
No data
Overall
13.4
Output $/M
$2.50
0
Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI
Coding
25.5
Overall
14.2
Output $/M
$7.50
30
vs boards won of 30 shared

Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3.5: which to pick

Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a coding score, 25.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova 2 Lite has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Nova 2 Lite for output tokens 3.0x cheaper ($2.50 vs $7.50 per million) and a larger context window (1M against 262K tokens).

Model ANova 2 LiteAmazonNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI25.5/1003 independent benchmarks$6.02 per solved task
Shared results
30
Nova 2 Lite only
1
Mistral Medium 3.5 only
50
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.

At a glance

Coding index
Nova 2 Lite not benchmarked, Mistral Medium 3.5 25.5 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 16.2 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
AA Coding Index: Nova 2 Lite 23.0 against Mistral Medium 3.5 46.9, 23.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Nova 2 Lite $2.50 against Mistral Medium 3.5 $7.50 per million output tokens, 3.0x apart.
Context window
Nova 2 Lite takes 1M tokens, Mistral Medium 3.5 262K.

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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryNova 2 LiteBarsMistral Medium 3.5Ties
Coding04
Intelligence01
Reasoning03
Math02
Knowledge04
General016
All shared boards030
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
Coding benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
LMArena WebDevNot measured1264Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
AA Coding Index23.046.9Mistral Medium 3.5
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured66.4%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured2.9%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured5.1%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured39.0%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
SciCodeNot measured40.2%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured33.3%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
ALE-Bench236.3764.0Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: coding13851460Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: software and IT13941458Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1254Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1308Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
AA Intelligence Index13.414.2Mistral Medium 3.5
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured141.4Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
Agentic work benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured7.0Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured32.1%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured4.5%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured9.1%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured11.2%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
τ²-Bench TelecomNot measured94.2%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
Reasoning benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
GPQA DiamondNot measured34.9%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured74.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured13.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13641436Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: expert13591432Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13851445Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1254Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1230Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Math benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
ProofBenchNot measured9.0%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Text: math13591431Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work13691440Mistral Medium 3.5
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Knowledge benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
MMLU ProNot measured75.3%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)Not measured44.2%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured58.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured68.0%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)Not measured28.9%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured33.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Text: science13821428Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13861409Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: legal and government13591437Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: business and finance13691426Mistral Medium 3.5
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
Design Arena: websitesNot measured1142Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1079Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: game devNot measured1079Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1120Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: 3DNot measured1061Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: all code categoriesNot measured1121Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: SVGNot measured950Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Design Arena: ASCII artNot measured1063Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index016
General benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
SAGE (Vals AI)Not measured37.6%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured67.7%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured34.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
IFBenchNot measured68.8%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)Not measured69.3%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
DTBenchNot measured75.5%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMCANot measured26.1%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Surface Evolver BenchNot measured26.9%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Text13621421Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: instruction following13351415Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: creative writing12921374Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena VisionNot measured1222Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Text: English13851433Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: non-English13371404Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Chinese13641444Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: German13431453Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Japanese1273Not measuredOnly Nova 2 Lite measured
LMArena Text: Korean12811384Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: French13811448Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Spanish13751411Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Russian13421395Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Polish13271430Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: multi-turn13381423Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: longer queries13351415Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: writing and language13181384Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media13091382Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1240Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1244Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1233Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1216Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1198Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkNova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5Leader
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

Nova 2 Lite$0.0015Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.0053Fits in one request

Nova 2 Lite costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Nova 2 Lite$0.022Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.098Fits in one request

Nova 2 Lite costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Nova 2 Lite$0.085Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.375Fits in one request

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.

Specifications of Nova 2 Lite and Mistral Medium 3.5
SpecificationAmazon Nova 2 LiteMistral Medium 3.5
MakerAmazonMistral AI
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedDecember 2, 2025April 30, 2026
Context window1M262K
Input $/Mtok$0.30$1.50
Output $/Mtok$2.50$7.50
Coding indexNot benchmarked25.5
Independent measurements behind it03
Cost per solved taskNot computable$6.02
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Nova 2 Lite better than Mistral Medium 3.5 for coding?

Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a coding score, 25.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova 2 Lite has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova 2 Lite for output tokens 3.0x cheaper ($2.50 vs $7.50 per million) and a larger context window (1M against 262K tokens).

Which is cheaper, Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Nova 2 Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 and $7.50. Cost per solved task is known for Mistral Medium 3.5 only.

Which has the bigger context window, Nova 2 Lite or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Nova 2 Lite, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the Nova 2 Lite vs Mistral Medium 3.5 comparison based on?

30 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 3.5's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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