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Codestral 2 vs o3-mini

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-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 is roughly 4.9× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $4.40 per 1M).

  • Context windowCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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); o3-mini is API-only.

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against o3-mini's 0. Codestral 2 is roughly 4.9× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $4.40 per 1M). Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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); o3-mini 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 o3-mini 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

SpecCodestral 2o3-mini
ProviderMistralOpenAI
ReleasedJan 2025Jan 2025
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.30 / 1M tokens$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.90 / 1M tokens$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2023-10
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 $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $191

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $9.90 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $99.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $191 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
  • o3-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

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

Codestral 2o3-mini
  • HumanEval92.0
  • GPQA,79.7
Pick Codestral 2 if

Codestral 2 fits when…

  • Fast inline completion
  • FIM support
  • Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 4.9× cheaper than o3-mini on output tokens.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
Pick o3-mini if

o3-mini fits when…

  • Reasoning at mid-tier cost
  • Fast for a thinking model
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 2o3-mini vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Codestral 2 or o3-mini cheaper?
    Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.40 / 1M tokens for o3-mini.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for o3-mini.
  • Is Codestral 2 or o3-mini better for coding?
    Both Codestral 2 and o3-mini 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-mini is API-only.
  • When were Codestral 2 and o3-mini released?
    Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
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