Is GPT-4.1 better than Codestral for coding?

GPT-4.1 scores 80 overall vs Codestral's 60. GPT-4.1 has stronger benchmark performance, but pricing also matters — GPT-4.1 costs $2.00/M input vs $0.300/M for Codestral.

Which is cheaper: GPT-4.1 or Codestral?

Codestral is cheaper per million input tokens at $0.30/M vs $2.00/M.

What is the price-performance ratio of GPT-4.1 vs Codestral?

Based on benchmark scores, GPT-4.1 costs $0.063 per score point while Codestral costs $0.005 per score point. Codestral offers better value.

GPT-4.1 vs Codestral

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-4.1

OpenAI

Updated GPT-4 generation with improved instruction following and reduced hallucination. Better coding accuracy than GPT-4o.

Input	$2.00/M
Output	$8.00/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	Production coding, API development, complex instructions
Benchmark	80/100

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
Context	128K tokens
Best For	Code completion, code generation, IDE integration
Benchmark	60/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

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

Benchmark	GPT-4.1	Codestral	Leader
Overall Score	80	60	GPT-4.1 leads by 20pts
SWE-bench Verified	76	54	GPT-4.1 leads by 22pts
LiveCodeBench	82	64	GPT-4.1 leads by 18pts
HumanEval	94	82	GPT-4.1 leads by 12pts
BigCodeBench	68	44	GPT-4.1 leads by 24pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

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

Scenario	GPT-4.1	Codestral	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.31	$0.04	Codestral saves $0.27 (88%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$2.30	$0.29	Codestral saves $2.01 (88%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$11.50	$1.43	Codestral saves $10.07 (88%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.55	$0.07	Codestral saves $0.48 (86%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

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

Model	Overall Score	Price per Score Point	Verdict
GPT-4.1	80	$0.063/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-4.1

+ Latest GPT model
+ Strong across all benchmarks
- Premium pricing

Codestral

+ Code-specialized
+ Very cheap
- Narrow focus

Verdict

Codestral is cheaper at $0.300/M, but GPT-4.1 scores higher on benchmarks (80 vs 60).

Choose Codestral for cost-sensitive projects, GPT-4.1 when performance matters most.

Compare with Other Models

Claude Sonnet 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude Opus 4

Anthropic

Anthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$23.29 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Anthropic

Previous generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.66 per medium feature

Claude 3.5 Haiku

Anthropic

Fast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.

$0.800/M input $4.00/M output ~$1.24 per medium feature

Claude 3 Opus

Anthropic

First generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.

$15.00/M input $75.00/M output ~$20.25 per medium feature

Claude 3 Sonnet

Anthropic

First generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.

$3.00/M input $15.00/M output ~$4.05 per medium feature