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Codestral 2 vs Pixtral Large

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 · Pixtral Large specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral Large 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.

  • ModalitiesPixtral Large

    Pixtral Large supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Codestral 2.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Pixtral Large's 1. Codestral 2 publishes pricing ($0.90 / 1M output tokens) while Pixtral Large 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 Pixtral Large handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Codestral 2 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Pixtral Large, 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 Pixtral Large sees more deployments in vision and ocr. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecCodestral 2Pixtral Large
ProviderMistralMistral
ReleasedJan 2025Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window256K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.30 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.90 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Mistral Non-Production License)Yes (Mistral Research License)
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 ,
  • 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).

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
  • Pixtral LargePricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

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

Codestral 2Pixtral Large
  • HumanEval92.0
Pick Codestral 2 if

Codestral 2 fits when…

  • Fast inline completion
  • FIM support
  • Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Pixtral Large.
Pick Pixtral Large if

Pixtral Large fits when…

  • Strong document AI
  • Open weights
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
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 2Pixtral Large vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Codestral 2 or Pixtral Large 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 Pixtral Large.
  • Is Codestral 2 or Pixtral Large better for coding?
    Both Codestral 2 and Pixtral Large 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; Pixtral Large under Mistral Research License.
  • When were Codestral 2 and Pixtral Large released?
    Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Pixtral Large was released by Mistral on 2024-11-18.
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