Codestral 2 vs o3
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 · o3 specs- PriceCodestral 2
Codestral 2 is roughly 8.9× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $8.00 per 1M).
- Context windowCodestral 2
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.
- Benchmarkso3
o3 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 92.0.
- Modalitieso3
o3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Codestral 2.
- OpennessCodestral 2
Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); o3 is API-only.
On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against o3's 2. Codestral 2 is roughly 8.9× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $8.00 per 1M). Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.
o3 leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 95.0 vs 92.0. They differ in modality coverage, Codestral 2 handles text while o3 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Codestral 2 ships open weights (Mistral Non-Production License); o3 is API-only.
o3 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 o3 sees more deployments in reasoning and math. 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 | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | OpenAI |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $0.90 / 1M tokens | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| 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 $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $348
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $18.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $180 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $348 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
- o3$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval92.095.0
- GPQA,87.7
Codestral 2 fits when…
- Fast inline completion
- FIM support
- Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 8.9× cheaper than o3 on output tokens.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
o3 fits when…
- Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
- Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
- Tool-use during reasoning loops
- 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 o3 cheaper?
Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for o3.Which has the larger context window?
Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for o3.Is Codestral 2 or o3 better for coding?
Both Codestral 2 and o3 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). o3 is API-only.When were Codestral 2 and o3 released?
Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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