API cost decision in 10 seconds

Mistral Large 3 2512 vs Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)

Pick Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) for lower cost; pick Mistral Large 3 2512 only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) for lower cost; pick Mistral Large 3 2512 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is estimated at $0 vs $1.25 for Mistral Large 3 2512, saving $1.25 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickNemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)

Context-first pickMistral Large 3 2512

Sample savings$1.25100%

10x traffic gap$12.5

Mistral Large 3 2512 has more context, but Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) saves $1.25 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $12.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mistral Large 3 2512	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	$3.25	$0
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	$2	$0
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	$8	$0

Cheaper input Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) $0.5 vs $0 / 1M

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for input tokens while Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $0.5 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) $1.5 vs $0 / 1M

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for output tokens while Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $1.5 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Mistral Large 3 2512 262.14K vs 128K

Mistral Large 3 2512 has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Sample workload Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) $1.25 vs $0

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $1.25.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Mistral Large 3 2512 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) has the lower input price; Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) has the lower output price; Mistral Large 3 2512 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.25 for Mistral Large 3 2512 and $0 for Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free).

Best Fit

Choose Mistral Large 3 2512 when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is estimated at $0 vs $1.25 for Mistral Large 3 2512, saving $1.25 (100% lower).
Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $1.25.
Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for input tokens while Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $0.5 per 1M tokens.
Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is free for output tokens while Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $1.5 per 1M tokens.
Mistral Large 3 2512 has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Mistral Large 3 2512 (Mistral)	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) (NVIDIA)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.5	$0
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$1.5	$0
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$1.25	$0
Context Window	262.14K	128K
Release Date	2025-12-01	2025-10-28

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is estimated at $0 vs $1.25 for Mistral Large 3 2512, saving $1.25 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Mistral Large 3 2512	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Large 3 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
Mistral Small 3 can replace Mistral Large 3 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
Ministral 3 3B 2512 can replace Mistral Large 3 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.15.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B can replace Mistral Large 3 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.17.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite offers 1.05M context with $1 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

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Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

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Mistral catalog

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NVIDIA catalog

Check other NVIDIA models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open NVIDIA models

Mistral Large 3 2512

Mistral Large 3 2512 is Mistral’s most capable model to date, featuring a sparse mixture-of-experts architecture with 41B active parameters (675B total), and released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)

NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 2 VL is a 12-billion-parameter open multimodal reasoning model designed for video understanding and document intelligence. It introduces a hybrid Transformer-Mamba architecture, combining transformer-level accuracy with Mamba’s...