Codestral 2 vs GPT-4o
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Codestral 2 specs · GPT-4o specs- PriceCodestral 2
Codestral 2 is roughly 11.1× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $10.00 per 1M).
- Context windowCodestral 2
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksCodestral 2
Codestral 2 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 92.0 vs 90.2.
- ModalitiesGPT-4o
GPT-4o supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Codestral 2.
- OpennessCodestral 2
Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); GPT-4o is API-only.
On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 4 of 5 categories against GPT-4o's 1. Codestral 2 is roughly 11.1× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $10.00 per 1M). Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× the room for long documents and codebases.
Codestral 2 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 92.0 vs 90.2. They differ in modality coverage, Codestral 2 handles text while GPT-4o handles text, vision, audio, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); GPT-4o is API-only.
Codestral 2 is the newer of the two, released 8 months after GPT-4o, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Codestral 2 is usually picked for code completion and coding llm workloads, while GPT-4o sees more deployments in chatbots and vision. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Codestral 2 | GPT-4o |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | OpenAI |
| Released | Jan 2025 | May 2024 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision, audio |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $2.50 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $0.90 / 1M tokens | $10.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2023-10 |
| Open weights | Yes (Mistral Non-Production License) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$2.25 vs $22.50
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $225
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $435
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $22.50 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $225 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $435 per month, model A comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Codestral 2$0.075
- GPT-4o$0.750
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,88.7
- HumanEval92.090.2
Codestral 2 fits when…
- Fast inline completion
- FIM support
- Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 11.1× cheaper than GPT-4o on output tokens.
- Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o.
GPT-4o fits when…
- Native multimodal
- Mature SDK and tooling
- Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Consider Mistral Large 2
Mistral's flagship API model, strong on code and reasoning, EU-friendly hosting.
Frequently asked
Is Codestral 2 or GPT-4o cheaper?
Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $10.00 / 1M tokens for GPT-4o.Which has the larger context window?
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o.Is Codestral 2 or GPT-4o better for coding?
Both Codestral 2 and GPT-4o 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). GPT-4o is API-only.When were Codestral 2 and GPT-4o released?
Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. GPT-4o was released by OpenAI on 2024-05-13.
The week's AI launches, in your inbox.
One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.