Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Codestral 25.08
Claude Haiku 4.5 and Codestral 25.08 are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Claude Haiku 4.5 leads on reasoning, general knowledge, instruction following. Codestral 25.08 leads on coding.
Specs side by side
| Metric | Anthropic Claude Haiku 4.5 | Mistral AI Codestral 25.08 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $1 | $0.3 |
| Output price (per 1M) | $5 | $0.9 |
| Context window | 200k tokens | 256k tokens |
| Speed tier | fast | fast |
| Open weights | No | Yes |
| EU region | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | No | La Plateforme |
| Prompt caching | Yes | No |
| Vision input | Yes | No |
| Extended thinking | No | No |
When to choose each
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 if…
- You need image input / vision
- Reasoning is central to your workload
- General knowledge is central to your workload
Choose Codestral 25.08 if…
- Cost is a priority ($0.30 / $0.90 per 1M vs $1 / $5 per 1M)
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning
- You want a free tier for prototyping
- Coding is central to your workload
Benchmark delta
Claude Haiku 4.5 leads on
- Reasoning
- General knowledge
- Instruction following
- Tool use
Codestral 25.08 leads on
- Coding
FAQ — Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Codestral 25.08
Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Codestral 25.08 — which is better?
Claude Haiku 4.5 and Codestral 25.08 are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Claude Haiku 4.5 leads on reasoning, general knowledge, instruction following. Codestral 25.08 leads on coding. The right pick depends on your use case — see "When to choose each" above for a data-driven decision.
How does Claude Haiku 4.5 pricing compare to Codestral 25.08?
Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1 / $5 per 1M vs Codestral 25.08 at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Codestral 25.08 is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 456%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.
Does Claude Haiku 4.5 or Codestral 25.08 have the bigger context window?
Codestral 25.08 has a 256k-token context window — 1× the 200k context of Claude Haiku 4.5. Enough for long reports and multi-document analysis.
Is there a free tier for Claude Haiku 4.5 or Codestral 25.08?
Claude Haiku 4.5: no — No free API tier; new accounts get starter credits. Codestral 25.08: yes — Free tier for prototyping with rate limits.
Which is better for coding — Claude Haiku 4.5 or Codestral 25.08?
Codestral 25.08 leads on coding benchmarks (Claude Haiku 4.5: 82/100, Codestral 25.08: 90/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 88, Codestral 25.08 scores 78.