Codestral 2 vs Llama 4 405B
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 · Llama 4 405B specs- PriceCodestral 2
Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not.
- Context windowTie
Both ship a 256K-token context window.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesLlama 4 405B
Llama 4 405B supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Codestral 2.
- OpennessTie
Both ship open weights, self-host either one.
It's a genuine coin-flip between Codestral 2 and Llama 4 405B: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not. Both ship a 256K-token context window.
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 Llama 4 405B handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.
Llama 4 405B is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Codestral 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 Llama 4 405B sees more deployments in open source llm and fine tuning. 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 | Llama 4 405B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | Meta |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.30 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $0.90 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-12 |
| Open weights | Yes (Mistral Non-Production License) | Yes (Llama 4 Community License) |
| 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
- Llama 4 405BPricing 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
Llama 4 405B fits when…
- Strongest open-weight model at launch
- Multimodal (text + vision)
- Wide hosting availability
- 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 Llama 4 405B 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?
Both Codestral 2 and Llama 4 405B ship a 256K-token context window.Is Codestral 2 or Llama 4 405B better for coding?
Both Codestral 2 and Llama 4 405B 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?
Both ship with open weights. Codestral 2 is licensed under Mistral Non-Production License; Llama 4 405B under Llama 4 Community License.When were Codestral 2 and Llama 4 405B released?
Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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