Codestral 25.08 vs Grok 4.20
Codestral 25.08 and Grok 4.20 are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Grok 4.20 has a 2M context window — about 8× the 256k of Codestral 25.08. Grok 4.20 leads on reasoning, general knowledge, long-context retrieval.
Specs side by side
| Metric | Mistral AI Codestral 25.08 | xAI Grok 4.20 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $0.3 | $2 |
| Output price (per 1M) | $0.9 | $6 |
| Context window | 256k tokens | 2M tokens |
| Speed tier | fast | balanced |
| Open weights | Yes | No |
| EU region | Yes | No |
| Free tier | La Plateforme | No |
| Prompt caching | No | Yes |
| Vision input | No | Yes |
| Extended thinking | No | Yes |
When to choose each
Choose Codestral 25.08 if…
- Cost is a priority ($0.30 / $0.90 per 1M vs $2 / $6 per 1M)
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning
- EU data residency is required
- HIPAA eligibility is required
- You want a free tier for prototyping
Choose Grok 4.20 if…
- You need 2M context (8× more than Codestral 25.08)
- You need image input / vision
- Reasoning is central to your workload
- General knowledge is central to your workload
Benchmark delta
Codestral 25.08 leads on
Codestral 25.08 has no meaningful benchmark lead in this pair.
Grok 4.20 leads on
- Reasoning
- General knowledge
- Long-context retrieval
- Instruction following
- Multilingual
- Tool use
FAQ — Codestral 25.08 vs Grok 4.20
Codestral 25.08 vs Grok 4.20 — which is better?
Codestral 25.08 and Grok 4.20 are both current production-tier models. Codestral 25.08 is meaningfully cheaper at $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M. Grok 4.20 has a 2M context window — about 8× the 256k of Codestral 25.08. Grok 4.20 leads on reasoning, general knowledge, long-context retrieval. 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 Grok 4.20?
Codestral 25.08 costs $0.30 / $0.90 per 1M vs Grok 4.20 at $2 / $6 per 1M. Codestral 25.08 is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 567%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.
Does Codestral 25.08 or Grok 4.20 have the bigger context window?
Grok 4.20 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 Grok 4.20?
Codestral 25.08: yes — Free tier for prototyping with rate limits. Grok 4.20: no — X Premium includes Grok web chat; API is paid.
Which is better for coding — Codestral 25.08 or Grok 4.20?
Grok 4.20 leads on coding benchmarks (Codestral 25.08: 90/100, Grok 4.20: 91/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — Codestral 25.08 scores 78, Grok 4.20 scores 88.