Codestral 2508 vs o3
| Signal | Codestral 2508 | Delta | o3 |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 50 | -50 | |
Pricing | 99 | +7 | |
Context window size | 86 | +2 | |
Recency | 67 | +19 | |
Output Capacity | 20 | -63 | |
Benchmarks | 0 | -88 | |
| Overall Result | 3 wins | of 6 | 3 wins |
Score History
40
current score
o3
right now
86.7
current score
Codestral 2508
Mistral AI
o3
OpenAI
Codestral 2508 saves you $525.00/month
That's $6300.00/year compared to o3 at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Codestral 2508 | o3 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 40 | 87 | o3 |
| Rank | #267 | #43 | o3 |
| Quality Rank | #267 | #43 | o3 |
| Adoption Rank | #267 | #43 | o3 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 256K | 200K | Codestral 2508 |
| Pricing | $0.30/$0.90/M | $2.00/$8.00/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 50 | 100 | o3 |
| Pricing | 99 | 92 | Codestral 2508 |
| Context window size | 86 | 84 | Codestral 2508 |
| Recency | 67 | 48 | Codestral 2508 |
| Output Capacity | 20 | 83 | o3 |
| Benchmarks | -- | 88 | o3 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 40/100 (rank #267), placing it in the top 8% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 87/100 (rank #43), placing it in the top 86% of all 290 models tracked.
o3 has a 47-point advantage, which typically translates to noticeably stronger performance on complex reasoning, code generation, and multi-step tasks.
Choose Codestral 2508 when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
Choose o3 when you need:
- Multimodal workflows that require image understanding
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Codestral 2508 offers 88% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $18.00/month with Codestral 2508 vs $150.00/month with o3 - a $132.00 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Codestral 2508 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (256K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($0.90/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (87/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
o3 clearly outperforms Codestral 2508 with a significant 46.7-point lead. For most general use cases, o3 is the stronger choice. However, Codestral 2508 may still excel in niche scenarios.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Codestral 2508
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Codestral 2508
88% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Codestral 2508
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Codestral 2508
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Codestral 2508
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Mistral AI
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Cost - 88% lower pricing; better value at scale
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Codestral 2508 | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoningdiffers | ||
| Web Searchdiffers | ||
| Image Output |
Codestral 2508
Mistral AI
o3
OpenAI
Codestral 2508 saves you $11.58/month
That's 88% cheaper than o3 at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Codestral 2508 | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 256K | 200K |
| Max Output Tokens | -- | 100,000 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Aug 1, 2025 | Apr 16, 2025 |