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Codestral-22B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct are closely matched at 0.5 and -2.0 on the LLM Stats Score.

Mistral AI · Meta · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 0.5 and -2.0.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Codestral-22B wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Codestral-22B

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2024

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Codestral-22B
Mistral AI
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
0.5
#304
-2.0
#316
Reasoning
0.4
#297
-3.0
#315
Coding
2.6
#209
-2.2
#231
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
— / M
$0.03 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.03 / M
Context window
—
131,072

Individual benchmarks

7 reported for Codestral-22B · 18 for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

1 shared

Codestral-22B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (HumanEval), while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Codestral-22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Aug 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

14.2B diff

Codestral-22B has 14.2B more parameters than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, making it 177.5% larger.

Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
22.2Bparameters
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
8.0Bparameters
22.2B
Codestral-22B
8.0B
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Sun Aug 30 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Codestral-22B is licensed under MNPL-0.1, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Codestral-22B

MNPL-0.1

Open weights

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 2 months newer than Codestral-22B.

Codestral-22B

May 29, 2024

2.3 years ago

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.1 years ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-31, while Codestral-22B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 8B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Codestral-22B's cutoff date.

Codestral-22B

—

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Codestral-22B
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Codestral-22B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Codestral-22B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 0.5 and -2.0. Codestral-22B is made by Mistral AI and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is made by Meta. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Codestral-22B compare to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Codestral-22B scores HumanEvalFIM-Average: 91.6%, HumanEval: 81.1%, MBPP: 78.2%, Spider: 63.5%, HumanEval-Average: 61.5%. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores GSM-8K (CoT): 84.5%, ARC-C: 83.4%, API-Bank: 82.6%, IFEval: 80.4%, BFCL: 76.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Codestral-22B supports an unknown number of tokens and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (0.5 vs -2.0), licensing (MNPL-0.1 vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Codestral-22B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Codestral-22B is developed by Mistral AI and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is developed by Meta.

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