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Claude 3.5 Haiku vs Codestral 2

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude 3.5 Haiku specs · Codestral 2 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 is roughly 4.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $4.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Haiku

    Claude 3.5 Haiku supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Codestral 2.

  • OpennessCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); Claude 3.5 Haiku is API-only.

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Claude 3.5 Haiku's 1. Codestral 2 is roughly 4.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $4.00 per 1M). Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.5 Haiku handles text, vision while Codestral 2 handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); Claude 3.5 Haiku is API-only.

Codestral 2 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Claude 3.5 Haiku, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.5 Haiku is usually picked for customer support and code completion workloads, while Codestral 2 sees more deployments in code completion and coding llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude 3.5 HaikuCodestral 2
ProviderAnthropicMistral
ReleasedNov 2024Jan 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens256K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.80 / 1M tokens$0.30 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.00 / 1M tokens$0.90 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Mistral Non-Production License)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$8.40 vs $2.25
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$84.00 vs $22.50
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$144 vs $50.40

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $8.40 vs $2.25 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $84.00 vs $22.50 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $144 vs $50.40 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude 3.5 Haiku$0.280
  • Codestral 2$0.075

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Claude 3.5 HaikuCodestral 2
  • HumanEval,92.0
Pick Claude 3.5 Haiku if

Claude 3.5 Haiku fits when…

  • Fast
  • Cheap for Anthropic
  • Strong code at small size
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Codestral 2 if

Codestral 2 fits when…

  • Fast inline completion
  • FIM support
  • Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 4.4× cheaper than Claude 3.5 Haiku on output tokens.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude 3.5 Haiku vs Claude Opus 4.7Codestral 2 vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or Codestral 2 cheaper?
    Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.00 / 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or Codestral 2 better for coding?
    Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and Codestral 2 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License). Claude 3.5 Haiku is API-only.
  • When were Claude 3.5 Haiku and Codestral 2 released?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku was released by Anthropic on 2024-11-04. Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14.
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