Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) | Mistral Small (Feb '24) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.2 | $0.15 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.6 | $0.6 |
Verdict. NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) wins the overall benchmark matchup 1–0 across 1 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Mistral Small (Feb '24) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Mistral Small (Feb '24) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) is strongest on Intelligence Index (8.8). Mistral Small (Feb '24) leads on Intelligence Index (3.2).
Speed. Throughput is comparable — 120 tok/s vs 150 tok/s — so generation speed shouldn't drive your choice here. Look at the per-benchmark wins instead.
Provider. NVIDIA and Mistral sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: NVIDIA tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Mistral 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): NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) costs $15.00 ($180/year); Mistral Small (Feb '24) costs $13.50 ($162/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $2.20/run, Mistral Small (Feb '24) ≈ $1.95/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VL (Reasoning) ≈ $100/run, Mistral Small (Feb '24) ≈ $90/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.
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 150 tok/s vs 120 tok/s. However, Mistral Small (Feb '24) has lower time-to-first-token (0.78s vs 3.37s).
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.