ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Codestral 25.08 vs Seed 1.6 Vision vs GLM-4.5-Air

Seed 1.6 Vision comes out ahead, 61 to 48 and 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Codestral 25.08

    Released Jul 30, 2025

    47/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $0.90
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Codestral 25.08
  2. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed 1.6 Vision

    Released Aug 15, 2025Deprecated

    61/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.119 / $1.19
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Seed 1.6 Vision

  3. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-4.5-Air

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove GLM-4.5-Air
01 — Verdict

Seed 1.6 Vision is our pick

Seed 1.6 Vision is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (48) and Codestral 25.08 (47). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceSeed 1.6 VisionSeed 1.6 Vision $0.386 · GLM-4.5-Air $0.425 · Codestral 25.08 $0.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSeed 1.6 VisionSeed 1.6 Vision 256,000 · GLM-4.5-Air 131,072 · Codestral 25.08 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed 1.6 VisionCodestral 25.08: Text · Seed 1.6 Vision: Text, Images · GLM-4.5-Air: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightCodestral 25.08Seed 1.6 VisionGLM-4.5-Air
Price50%646765
Inputs & features30%357035
Context window20%243625
Overall100%47/10061/10048/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Codestral 25.08 vs Seed 1.6 Vision vs GLM-4.5-Air specifications side by side
SpecificationCodestral 25.08Mistral AISeed 1.6 VisionByteDance SeedGLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.119 (best)$0.20
Output$0.90 (best)$1.19$1.10
Cached input$0.03$0.024 (best)$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.45$0.386 (best)$0.425
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.178 / $2.37Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Volcengine Ark APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens256,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens32,000 tokens98,304 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDcodestral-2508doubao-seed-1-6-vision-250815glm-4.5-air
API providers11219 (best)
ReleasedJul 30, 2025Aug 15, 2025Jul 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoff——Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Codestral 25.08$4.80
  • Seed 1.6 Vision$3.56
  • GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Codestral 25.08, Seed 1.6 Vision or GLM-4.5-Air?

Seed 1.6 Vision is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (48) and Codestral 25.08 (47). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Codestral 25.08, Seed 1.6 Vision or GLM-4.5-Air?

Seed 1.6 Vision is cheaper at $0.119 input / $1.19 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price); Codestral 25.08 costs $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.386 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Vision versus $0.425 for GLM-4.5-Air (1.1× as much) and $0.45 for Codestral 25.08 (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Codestral 25.08 has not been scored yet, Seed 1.6 Vision has not been scored yet and GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Codestral 25.08, Seed 1.6 Vision and GLM-4.5-Air yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed 1.6 Vision has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for GLM-4.5-Air and 128,000 for Codestral 25.08. Maximum output per response: Codestral 25.08 up to 8,192, Seed 1.6 Vision up to 32,000, GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Codestral 25.08 accepts text; Seed 1.6 Vision accepts text and images; GLM-4.5-Air accepts text. Seed 1.6 Vision handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

GLM-4.5-Air publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Codestral 25.08 and Seed 1.6 Vision is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Seed 1.6 Vision is the newest, released Aug 15, 2025. Codestral 25.08 came out Jul 30, 2025; GLM-4.5-Air came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GLM-4.5-Air Apr 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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