Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Nova Micro | Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.04 | $0.03 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.14 | $0.15 |
Verdict. Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 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 0.9× the per-million-token cost, Nova Micro is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Nova Micro makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Nova Micro is strongest on Intelligence Index (4.4). Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) leads on Coding Index (20.3), Intelligence Index (16.1).
Speed. On throughput, Nova Micro generates tokens at 282 tok/s versus 28 tok/s — about 90% faster. On time-to-first-token, Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) responds in 710ms vs 870ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Amazon and Alibaba sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Amazon tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Alibaba 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): Nova Micro costs $3.30 ($40/year); Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) costs $3.15 ($38/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Nova Micro ≈ $0.48/run, Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $0.45/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Nova Micro ≈ $22/run, Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $21/run. Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) 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
Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.06/M tokens vs $0.07/M for Nova Micro.
Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Nova Micro. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Nova Micro generates tokens faster at 282 tok/s vs 28 tok/s. However, Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.71s vs 0.87s).
Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, Qwen3.5 4B (Non-reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Nova Micro for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.