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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct vs Codestral 25.08

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct comes out ahead, 40 to 31 on our weighted score.

  1. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

    Released Aug 20, 2025

    40/100
    • ECI—
    • Price—
    • Context524K
    Full specs Remove Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Codestral 25.08

    Released Jul 30, 2025

    31/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $0.90
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Codestral 25.08

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is our pick

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 40/100 against Codestral 25.08 (31). It leads on 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 priceCodestral 25.08Codestral 25.08 $0.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
  • Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Codestral 25.08 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text · Codestral 25.08: Text
  • Self-hostingSeed-OSS-36B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightSeed-OSS-36B-InstructCodestral 25.08
Inputs & features60%3535
Context window40%4924
Overall100%40/10031/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. 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.

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct vs Codestral 25.08 specifications side by side
SpecificationSeed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance SeedCodestral 25.08Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics67.5%—
Price per million tokens
Input—$0.30
Output—$0.90
Cached input—$0.03
Blended (3:1)—$0.45
Long-context rate—Same rate
Price source—Official Mistral API
Limits
Context window524,288 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output524,288 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0Proprietary
API model ID—codestral-2508
API providers—11
ReleasedAug 20, 2025Jul 30, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 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.

  • Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
  • Codestral 25.08$4.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Codestral 25.08?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 40/100 against Codestral 25.08 (31). It leads on 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, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Codestral 25.08?

Codestral 25.08 is cheaper at $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 $0.45 per million tokens for Codestral 25.08 versus . Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has not been scored yet and Codestral 25.08 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct and Codestral 25.08 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has the largest context window at 524,288 tokens, against 128,000 for Codestral 25.08. Maximum output per response: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288, Codestral 25.08 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text; Codestral 25.08 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Codestral 25.08 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is the newest, released Aug 20, 2025. Codestral 25.08 came out Jul 30, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct Jul 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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