Codestral vs Pixtral 12B vs Vision Medium
Vision Medium comes out ahead, 84 to 40 and 29 on our weighted score.
Mistral AICodestral
29/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $0.90
- Context256K
- Mistral AI
Pixtral 12B
40/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context128K
- Our pick
VisparkVision Medium
84/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context1M
Vision Medium is our pick
Vision Medium is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against Pixtral 12B (40) and Codestral (29). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 pricePixtral 12BPixtral 12B $0.15 · Codestral $0.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Vision Medium unpriced
- Longest contextVision MediumVision Medium 1,000,000 · Codestral 256,000 · Pixtral 12B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsVision MediumCodestral: Text · Pixtral 12B: Text, Images · Vision Medium: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingCodestral and Pixtral 12BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Codestral | Pixtral 12B | Vision Medium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 25 | 50 | 100 |
| Context window | 40% | 36 | 24 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 29/100 | 40/100 | 84/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | CodestralMistral AI | Pixtral 12BMistral AI | Vision MediumVispark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.15 (best) | — |
| Output | $0.90 | $0.15 (best) | — |
| Cached input | $0.03 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.45 | $0.15 (best) | — |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | — |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Mistral API | — |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | codestral-latest | pixtral-12b | — |
| API providers | 3 | 4 (best) | — |
| Released | May 29, 2024 | Sep 1, 2024 | May 15, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Oct 2024 | Sep 2024 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Codestral$4.80
- Pixtral 12B$1.80
- Vision Medium—
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Codestral, Pixtral 12B or Vision Medium?
Vision Medium is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against Pixtral 12B (40) and Codestral (29). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Codestral, Pixtral 12B or Vision Medium?
Pixtral 12B is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Codestral 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Pixtral 12B versus $0.45 for Codestral (3× as much). Vision Medium has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Codestral has not been scored yet, Pixtral 12B has not been scored yet and Vision Medium has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Codestral, Pixtral 12B and Vision Medium 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?
Vision Medium has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 256,000 for Codestral and 128,000 for Pixtral 12B. Maximum output per response: Codestral up to 4,096, Pixtral 12B up to 128,000, Vision Medium up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Codestral accepts text; Pixtral 12B accepts text and images; Vision Medium accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Vision Medium handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Codestral and Pixtral 12B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Vision Medium is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Pixtral 12B is the newest, released Sep 1, 2024. Codestral came out May 29, 2024; Vision Medium came out May 15, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Codestral Oct 2024, Pixtral 12B Sep 2024.
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 Oct 4, 2026.
