GPT-4 Turbo vs Codestral

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4 Turbo

OpenAI

Previous generation high-performance model. Good for complex reasoning tasks.

Input$10.00/M
Output$30.00/M
Context128K tokens
Best ForComplex reasoning, data extraction, analysis
Benchmark70/100

Codestral

Mistral

Mistral's dedicated coding model. Open-weight and highly optimized for code generation and completion.

Input$0.300/M
Output$0.900/M
Context128K tokens
Best ForCode completion, code generation, IDE integration
Benchmark60/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.

BenchmarkGPT-4 TurboCodestralLeader
Overall Score 70 60 GPT-4 Turbo leads by 10pts
SWE-bench Verified 64 54 GPT-4 Turbo leads by 10pts
LiveCodeBench 72 64 GPT-4 Turbo leads by 8pts
HumanEval 88 82 GPT-4 Turbo leads by 6pts
BigCodeBench 56 44 GPT-4 Turbo leads by 12pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

ScenarioGPT-4 TurboCodestralSavings
Small Script (1K lines) $1.25 $0.04 Codestral saves $1.21 (97%)
Medium Feature (10K lines) $9.50 $0.29 Codestral saves $9.21 (97%)
Large Project (50K lines) $47.50 $1.43 Codestral saves $46.08 (97%)
Code Review (5K lines) $2.50 $0.07 Codestral saves $2.42 (97%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.

ModelOverall ScorePrice per Score PointVerdict
GPT-4 Turbo 70 $0.133/pt Higher cost per point
Codestral 60 $0.005/pt Better value

Codestral delivers the best value at $0.005 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

GPT-4 Turbo

  • + Proven model
  • + Large context
  • - Superseded by GPT-4o

Codestral

  • + Code-specialized
  • + Very cheap
  • - Narrow focus

Verdict

Codestral is cheaper at $0.300/M, but GPT-4 Turbo scores higher on benchmarks (70 vs 60).

Choose Codestral for cost-sensitive projects, GPT-4 Turbo when performance matters most.

Compare with Other Models