Claude 3 Opus vs Codestral

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing.

Codestral by Mistral wins on 11 of 14 benchmarks against Claude 3 Opus by Anthropic, which leads on 1. This head-to-head comparison covers coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing metrics from our benchmark data.

Category-by-Category Breakdown

General Intelligence: In general intelligence, Codestral scores 1260 on Chatbot Arena ELO compared to Claude 3 Opus's 1240, while both score 68.0% on MMLU-Pro.

Coding: In coding, Codestral scores 86.0% on HumanEval+ compared to Claude 3 Opus's 78.0%, while Codestral scores 40.0% on SWE-bench Verified compared to Claude 3 Opus's 22.0%, while Codestral scores 48.0% on LiveCodeBench compared to Claude 3 Opus's 32.0%.

Math: In math, Codestral scores 72.0% on MATH compared to Claude 3 Opus's 68.0%, while both score 88.0% on GSM8K.

Reasoning: In reasoning, Claude 3 Opus scores 59.4% on GPQA Diamond compared to Codestral's 44.0%, while Codestral scores 24.0% on ARC-AGI compared to Claude 3 Opus's 8.0%.

Context: In context, Codestral scores 256K on Context Length compared to Claude 3 Opus's 200K.

Pricing Comparison

Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input tokens and $75.0/1M output tokens, while Codestral costs $0.30/1M input and $0.90/1M output. Codestral is the more affordable option for API usage.

Speed Comparison

Claude 3 Opus generates output at 25 tok/s compared to Codestral's 90 tok/s, and the time to first token is 800 ms for Claude 3 Opus versus 280 ms for Codestral. Codestral delivers faster throughput.

Verdict

Codestral leads across the board in coding, general intelligence, math, affordability, speed, making it the stronger overall choice in this comparison.

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Claude 3 Opus vs Codestral — FAQ

Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or Codestral?

Codestral wins on more benchmarks overall (11 vs 1). However, the best choice depends on your specific needs — each model excels in different areas.

How does Claude 3 Opus compare to Codestral for coding?

Codestral is better for coding, scoring 40.0% on SWE-bench Verified compared to 22.0%. SWE-bench tests real-world software engineering by resolving actual GitHub issues.

Is Claude 3 Opus cheaper than Codestral?

Yes, Codestral is cheaper. Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input and $75.0/1M output tokens. Codestral costs $0.30/1M input and $0.90/1M output tokens.

Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Codestral?

Codestral is faster, generating output at 90 tok/s compared to 25 tok/s. Faster output speed means shorter wait times for API responses.

What benchmarks does the Claude 3 Opus vs Codestral comparison cover?

This comparison covers 14 benchmarks including Chatbot Arena ELO, MMLU-Pro, HumanEval+, MATH, GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench Verified, Output Speed, LiveCodeBench, and more. Metrics span general intelligence, coding, math, reasoning, speed, and cost categories.