Codestral-22B vs Qwen3 235B A22B
Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Codestral-22B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 1 benchmark (MBPP). Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Codestral-22B
- you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Codestral-22B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 1 benchmark (MBPP).
Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 235B A22B has 212.8B more parameters than Codestral-22B, making it 958.6% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
Codestral-22B is licensed under MNPL-0.1, while Qwen3 235B A22B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MNPL-0.1
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 235B A22B is 11 months newer than Codestral-22B.
May 29, 2024
2.2 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.3 years ago
11mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Codestral-22B and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Codestral-22B vs Qwen3 235B A22B.