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Codestral 2 vs Mistral Medium

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 · Mistral Medium specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 is roughly 2.2× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $2.00 per 1M).

  • 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.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessCodestral 2

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

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Mistral Medium's 0. Codestral 2 is roughly 2.2× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $2.00 per 1M). 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. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); Mistral Medium is API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2025, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Codestral 2 is usually picked for code completion and coding llm workloads, while Mistral Medium sees more deployments in customer support and chatbots. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecCodestral 2Mistral Medium
ProviderMistralMistral
ReleasedJan 2025Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.30 / 1M tokens$0.40 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.90 / 1M tokens$2.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Mistral Non-Production License)No
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$2.25 vs $4.20
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $42.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $72.00

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $4.20 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $42.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $72.00 per month, model A 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.

  • Codestral 2$0.075
  • Mistral Medium$0.140

Benchmarks compared

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

Codestral 2Mistral Medium
  • HumanEval92.0
Pick Codestral 2 if

Codestral 2 fits when…

  • Fast inline completion
  • FIM support
  • Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.2× cheaper than Mistral Medium on output tokens.
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Medium.
Pick Mistral Medium if

Mistral Medium fits when…

  • Mid-tier balance
  • EU-friendly
Don't want either?

Consider Mistral Large 2

Mistral's flagship API model, strong on code and reasoning, EU-friendly hosting.

See Mistral Large 2 specsCodestral 2 vs Mistral Large 2Mistral Medium vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Codestral 2 or Mistral Medium cheaper?
    Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $2.00 / 1M tokens for Mistral Medium.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Medium.
  • Is Codestral 2 or Mistral Medium better for coding?
    Both Codestral 2 and Mistral Medium 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). Mistral Medium is API-only.
  • When were Codestral 2 and Mistral Medium released?
    Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Mistral Medium was released by Mistral on 2024-12-18.
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