Model Comparison

Codestral-22B vs Llama 3.1 8B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Codestral-22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Codestral-22B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct — which is better?

Codestral-22B (by Mistral AI) and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (by Meta) 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.

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.

Choose Codestral-22B if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

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.

Wed Jul 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

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
Wed Jul 01 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

2.1 years ago

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.9 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→

Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Higher HumanEval score (81.1% vs 72.6%)
Meta
Larger context window (131,072 tokens)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

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
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

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 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. 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 benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities 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 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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