Codestral 2 vs Grok 2
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 · Grok 2 specs- PriceCodestral 2
Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Grok 2 does not.
- Context windowCodestral 2
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× 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.
- ModalitiesGrok 2
Grok 2 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Codestral 2.
- OpennessCodestral 2
Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); Grok 2 is API-only.
On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Grok 2's 1. Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Grok 2 does not. Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× 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, Codestral 2 handles text while Grok 2 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); Grok 2 is API-only.
Codestral 2 is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Grok 2, 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 Grok 2 sees more deployments in chatbots. 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 | Grok 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | xAI |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Aug 2024 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.30 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $0.90 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| 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 ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs ,
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
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
- Grok 2Pricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval92.0
Codestral 2 fits when…
- Fast inline completion
- FIM support
- Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
- Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Grok 2.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
Grok 2 fits when…
- Free on X Premium
- Real-time data
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider Mistral Large 2
Mistral's flagship API model, strong on code and reasoning, EU-friendly hosting.
Frequently asked
Is Codestral 2 or Grok 2 cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for Grok 2.Is Codestral 2 or Grok 2 better for coding?
Both Codestral 2 and Grok 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). Grok 2 is API-only.When were Codestral 2 and Grok 2 released?
Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Grok 2 was released by xAI on 2024-08-13.
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