Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Mistral Small (Sep '24) | NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.2 | $0.2 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.6 | $0.6 |
Verdict. Mistral Small (Sep '24) and NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) have benchmark data on different categories, so this comparison focuses on price, speed, and overlapping benchmarks.
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 (Non-reasoning) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Mistral Small (Sep '24) is strongest on Intelligence Index (5.8). NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) leads on Intelligence Index (5.8).
Speed. Throughput is comparable — 159 tok/s vs 198 tok/s — so generation speed shouldn't drive your choice here. Look at the per-benchmark wins instead.
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 (Sep '24) costs $15.00 ($180/year); NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) costs $15.00 ($180/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Mistral Small (Sep '24) ≈ $2.20/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) ≈ $2.20/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Mistral Small (Sep '24) ≈ $100/run, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) ≈ $100/run.
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
Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.
It's a tie — both models win 0 benchmarks each across 12 evaluated categories. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 198 tok/s vs 159 tok/s. Mistral Small (Sep '24) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.78s vs 1.16s).
Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, both perform similarly on benchmarks, and NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.