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Codestral 2 vs Yi-Lightning

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 · Yi-Lightning specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning is roughly 6.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $0.90 per 1M).

  • Context windowCodestral 2

    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 16K, 16.0× 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); Yi-Lightning is API-only.

On balance Codestral 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning is roughly 6.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $0.90 per 1M). Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 16K, 16.0× 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); Yi-Lightning is API-only.

Codestral 2 is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Yi-Lightning, 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 Yi-Lightning sees more deployments in chinese llm and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecCodestral 2Yi-Lightning
ProviderMistralOther
ReleasedJan 2025Oct 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.30 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.90 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 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 $0.630
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$22.50 vs $6.30
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$50.40 vs $21.84

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $2.25 vs $0.630 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $22.50 vs $6.30 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $50.40 vs $21.84 per month, model B 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
  • Yi-Lightning$0.021

Benchmarks compared

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

Codestral 2Yi-Lightning
  • 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 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Non-Production License).
Pick Yi-Lightning if

Yi-Lightning fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Strong Chinese
  • Fast
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 6.4× cheaper than Codestral 2 on output tokens.
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 2Yi-Lightning vs Mistral Large 2

Frequently asked

  • Is Codestral 2 or Yi-Lightning cheaper?
    Yi-Lightning is cheaper at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $0.90 / 1M tokens for Codestral 2.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Codestral 2 accepts 256K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Is Codestral 2 or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
    Both Codestral 2 and Yi-Lightning 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). Yi-Lightning is API-only.
  • When were Codestral 2 and Yi-Lightning released?
    Codestral 2 was released by Mistral on 2025-01-14. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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