Codestral vs Llama 3.1 70B
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Codestral
MistralMistral'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 |
Llama 3.1 70B
MetaMeta's mid-size Llama 3.1. Strong general performance with open weights for custom deployment.
| Input | $0.200/M |
| Output | $0.400/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | General AI tasks, custom deployment, fine-tuning |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Codestral | Llama 3.1 70B | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.04 | $0.02 | Llama 3.1 70B saves $0.02 (49%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.29 | $0.15 | Llama 3.1 70B saves $0.14 (47%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $1.43 | $0.75 | Llama 3.1 70B saves $0.68 (47%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.07 | $0.04 | Llama 3.1 70B saves $0.03 (40%) |
Verdict
Llama 3.1 70B wins on both price and performance — $0.200/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
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