Codestral 25.08 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro

Codestral 25.08 and Gemini 3.1 Pro are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Gemini 3.1 Pro has a 2M context window — about 8× the 256k of Codestral 25.08. Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge.

Specs side by side

Metric
Mistral AI
Codestral 25.08
Google
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Input price (per 1M)$0.3$2
Output price (per 1M)$0.9$12
Context window256k tokens2M tokens
Speed tierfastbalanced
Open weightsYesNo
EU regionYesYes
Free tierLa PlateformeNo
Prompt cachingNoYes
Vision inputNoYes
Extended thinkingNoYes

When to choose each

Mistral AI Free tier

Choose Codestral 25.08 if…

  • Cost is a priority ($0.30 / $0.90 per 1M vs $2 / $12 per 1M)
  • You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning
  • You want a free tier for prototyping
Google

Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro if…

  • You need 2M context (8× more than Codestral 25.08)
  • You need image input / vision
  • Coding is central to your workload
  • Reasoning is central to your workload

Benchmark delta

Codestral 25.08 leads on

Codestral 25.08 has no meaningful benchmark lead in this pair.

Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on

  • Coding
  • Reasoning
  • General knowledge
  • Long-context retrieval
  • Instruction following
  • Multilingual
  • Tool use

FAQ — Codestral 25.08 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro

Codestral 25.08 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro — which is better?

Codestral 25.08 and Gemini 3.1 Pro are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Gemini 3.1 Pro has a 2M context window — about 8× the 256k of Codestral 25.08. Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge. The right pick depends on your use case — see "When to choose each" above for a data-driven decision.

How does Codestral 25.08 pricing compare to Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Codestral 25.08 costs $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M vs Gemini 3.1 Pro at $2 / $12 per 1M. Codestral 25.08 is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 1233%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.

Does Codestral 25.08 or Gemini 3.1 Pro have the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Pro has a 2M-token context window — 8× the 256k context of Codestral 25.08. Enough for entire codebases, books, or multi-document RAG.

Is there a free tier for Codestral 25.08 or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Codestral 25.08: yes — Free tier for prototyping with rate limits. Gemini 3.1 Pro: no — Paid-only since 2026-04-01 (previously had free tier via AI Studio).

Which is better for coding — Codestral 25.08 or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding benchmarks (Codestral 25.08: 90/100, Gemini 3.1 Pro: 94/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — Codestral 25.08 scores 78, Gemini 3.1 Pro scores 91.