Model Comparison
Codestral-22B vs GPT-4.1Which is better in 2026?
Comparing Codestral-22B and GPT-4.1 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Verdict: Codestral-22B vs GPT-4.1 — which is better?
Codestral-22B (by Mistral AI) and GPT-4.1 (by OpenAI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Choose Codestral-22B if…
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose GPT-4.1 if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Codestral-22B and GPT-4.1don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only GPT-4.1 specifies input context (1,047,576 tokens). Only GPT-4.1 specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
GPT-4.1 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Codestral-22B does not.
GPT-4.1 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Codestral-22B
GPT-4.1
License
Usage and distribution terms
Codestral-22B is licensed under MNPL-0.1, while GPT-4.1 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MNPL-0.1
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29, while GPT-4.1 was released on 2025-04-14.
GPT-4.1 is 11 months newer than Codestral-22B.
May 29, 2024
2.0 years ago
Apr 14, 2025
1.2 years ago
10mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
GPT-4.1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Codestral-22B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm GPT-4.1's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Codestral-22B's cutoff date.
—
Jun 2024
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Codestral-22B
View detailsMistral AI
GPT-4.1
View detailsOpenAI
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Codestral-22B vs GPT-4.1.