Codestral vs Yi-Lightning
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 |
Yi-Lightning
01.ai01.ai's cost-effective model. Competitive Chinese-English bilingual model at very low prices.
| Input | $0.150/M |
| Output | $0.600/M |
| Context | 16K tokens |
| Best For | Chinese-English translation, cost-sensitive applications |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Codestral | Yi-Lightning | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.04 | $0.02 | Yi-Lightning saves $0.01 (38%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.29 | $0.17 | Yi-Lightning saves $0.11 (39%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $1.43 | $0.86 | Yi-Lightning saves $0.56 (39%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.07 | $0.04 | Yi-Lightning saves $0.03 (45%) |
Verdict
Yi-Lightning wins on both price and performance — $0.150/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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