Model Comparison

Codestral-22B vs Mistral Small 3 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Codestral-22B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct — which is better?

Codestral-22B (by Mistral AI) and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct (by Mistral AI) 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 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval). Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Codestral-22B if…

  • you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Codestral-22B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval).

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Jun 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

1.8B diff

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has 1.8B more parameters than Codestral-22B, making it 8.1% larger.

Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
22.2Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
24.0Bparameters
22.2B
Codestral-22B
24.0B
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct specifies input context (32,000 tokens). Only Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct specifies output context (32,000 tokens).

Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,000 tokens
Output32,000 tokens
Mon Jun 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Codestral-22B is licensed under MNPL-0.1, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Codestral-22B

MNPL-0.1

Open weights

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 8 months newer than Codestral-22B.

Codestral-22B

May 29, 2024

2.0 years ago

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.4 years ago

8mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Codestral-22B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Codestral-22B's cutoff date.

Codestral-22B

—

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Mistral AI

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Mistral AI
Larger context window (32,000 tokens)
Higher HumanEval score (84.8% vs 81.1%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Codestral-22B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Codestral-22B or Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Codestral-22B is made by Mistral AI and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Codestral-22B compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Codestral-22B scores HumanEvalFIM-Average: 91.6%, HumanEval: 81.1%, MBPP: 78.2%, Spider: 63.5%, HumanEval-Average: 61.5%. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct scores Arena Hard: 87.6%, HumanEval: 84.8%, MT-Bench: 83.5%, IFEval: 82.9%, MATH: 70.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Codestral-22B and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Codestral-22B supports an unknown number of tokens and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct supports 32K 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (MNPL-0.1 vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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