Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Mistral Small (Feb '24) | NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.15 | $0.2 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.6 | $0.6 |
Verdict. NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 1–0 across 1 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Mistral Small (Feb '24) is strongest on Intelligence Index (3.2). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) leads on Intelligence Index (8.8).
Speed. On throughput, Mistral Small (Feb '24) generates tokens at 142 tok/s versus 38 tok/s — about 74% faster. On time-to-first-token, Mistral Small (Feb '24) responds in 830ms vs 10490ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Mistral and NVIDIA sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Mistral tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while NVIDIA often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Mistral Small (Feb '24) costs $13.50 ($162/year); NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) costs $15.00 ($180/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Mistral Small (Feb '24) ≈ $1.95/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $2.20/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Mistral Small (Feb '24) ≈ $90/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $100/run. Mistral Small (Feb '24) becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Mistral Small (Feb '24) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.26/M tokens vs $0.30/M for NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning).
NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) wins 1 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Mistral Small (Feb '24). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Mistral Small (Feb '24) generates tokens faster at 142 tok/s vs 38 tok/s. Mistral Small (Feb '24) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.83s vs 10.49s).
Choose based on your priorities: Mistral Small (Feb '24) for lower cost, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Mistral Small (Feb '24) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.