Codestral vs Sonar vs Vision Small
Vision Small comes out ahead, 84 to 29 and 10 on our weighted score.
Mistral AICodestral
29/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $0.90
- Context256K
PerplexitySonar
10/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
- Our pick
VisparkVision Small
84/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context1M
Vision Small is our pick
Vision Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against Codestral (29) and Sonar (10). 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 priceCodestralCodestral $0.45 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Vision Small unpriced
- Longest contextVision SmallVision Small 1,000,000 · Codestral 256,000 · Sonar 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsVision SmallCodestral: Text · Sonar: Text · Vision Small: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingCodestralPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Codestral | Sonar | Vision Small |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 25 | 0 | 100 |
| Context window | 40% | 36 | 24 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 29/100 | 10/100 | 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 | SonarPerplexity | Vision SmallVispark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $1.00 | — |
| Output | $0.90 (best) | $1.00 | — |
| Cached input | $0.03 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.45 (best) | $1.00 | — |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | — |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Perplexity API | — |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | codestral-latest | sonar | — |
| API providers | 3 | 6 (best) | — |
| Released | May 29, 2024 | Jan 1, 2024 | May 15, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Oct 2024 | Sep 1, 2025 | — |
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
- Sonar$12.00
- Vision Small—
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Codestral, Sonar or Vision Small?
Vision Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 84/100 against Codestral (29) and Sonar (10). 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, Sonar or Vision Small?
Codestral is cheaper at $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.45 per million tokens for Codestral versus $1.00 for Sonar (2.2× as much). Vision Small 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, Sonar has not been scored yet and Vision Small has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Codestral, Sonar and Vision Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Vision Small has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 256,000 for Codestral and 128,000 for Sonar. Maximum output per response: Codestral up to 4,096, Sonar up to 4,096, Vision Small up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Codestral accepts text; Sonar accepts text; Vision Small accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Vision Small handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Codestral publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Sonar and Vision Small is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Codestral is the newest, released May 29, 2024. Vision Small came out May 15, 2024; Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Codestral Oct 2024, Sonar Sep 1, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
