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Codestral 2 vs Sonar Pro

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 · Sonar Pro specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 is roughly 16.7× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $15.00 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); Sonar Pro is API-only.

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Sonar Pro's 0. Codestral 2 is roughly 16.7× cheaper on output tokens ($0.90 vs $15.00 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); Sonar Pro 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 Sonar Pro sees more deployments in research agent and rag. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecCodestral 2Sonar Pro
ProviderMistralPerplexity
ReleasedJan 2025Jan 2025
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.30 / 1M tokens$3.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.90 / 1M tokens$15.00 / 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 $31.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $315
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $540

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $31.50 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $315 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $540 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
  • Sonar Pro$1.05

Benchmarks compared

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

Codestral 2Sonar Pro
  • HumanEval92.0
Pick Codestral 2 if

Codestral 2 fits when…

  • Fast inline completion
  • FIM support
  • Self-hostable for IP-sensitive teams
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 16.7× cheaper than Sonar Pro on output tokens.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
Pick Sonar Pro if

Sonar Pro fits when…

  • Multi-step web search
  • Deep research output
  • Citations
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 2Sonar Pro vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Codestral 2 or Sonar Pro cheaper?
    Codestral 2 is cheaper at $0.90 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Sonar Pro.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for Sonar Pro.
  • Is Codestral 2 or Sonar Pro better for coding?
    Both Codestral 2 and Sonar Pro 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). Sonar Pro is API-only.
  • When were Codestral 2 and Sonar Pro released?
    Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Sonar Pro was released by Perplexity on 2025-01-21.
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