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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Codestral vs Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct vs Command R

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct 51, Command R 51, Codestral 48). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Codestral

    Released May 29, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $0.90
    • Context256K
  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct

    Released Sep 2024

    51/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.35 / $1.05
    • Context131K
  3. Cohere

    Command R

    Released Aug 30, 2024

    51/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct 51/100, Command R 51/100, Codestral 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Command R on price and Codestral for long inputs. 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 priceCommand RCommand R $0.263 · Codestral $0.45 · Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct $0.525 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextCodestralCodestral 256,000 · Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct 131,072 · Command R 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen2.5-VL 7B InstructCodestral: Text · Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct: Text, Images · Command R: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightCodestralQwen2.5-VL 7B InstructCommand R
Price50%666377
Inputs & features30%255025
Context window20%362424
Overall100%48/10051/10051/100

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 vs Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct vs Command R specifications side by side
SpecificationCodestralMistral AIQwen2.5-VL 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Command RCohere
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.35$0.15 (best)
Output$0.90$1.05$0.60 (best)
Cached input$0.03——
Blended (3:1)$0.45$0.525$0.263 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Cohere API
Limits
Context window256,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens (best)4,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDcodestral-latestqwen2-5-vl-7b-instructcommand-r-08-2024
API providers315 (best)
ReleasedMay 29, 2024Sep 2024Aug 30, 2024
Knowledge cutoffOct 2024Apr 2024Jun 1, 2024
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$4.80
  • Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct$5.60
  • Command R$2.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Codestral, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct or Command R?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct 51/100, Command R 51/100, Codestral 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Command R on price and Codestral for long inputs. 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, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct or Command R?

Command R is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official Cohere API price). Codestral costs $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct costs $0.35 input / $1.05 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for Command R versus $0.45 for Codestral (1.7× as much) and $0.525 for Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Codestral has not been scored yet, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct has not been scored yet and Command R has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Codestral, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and Command R 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?

Codestral has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct and 128,000 for Command R. Maximum output per response: Codestral up to 4,096, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct up to 8,192, Command R up to 4,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Codestral accepts text; Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct accepts text and images; Command R accepts text. Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 2024. Command R came out Aug 30, 2024; Codestral came out May 29, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Codestral Oct 2024, Qwen2.5-VL 7B Instruct Apr 2024, Command R Jun 1, 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.