Model Comparison

Grok-3 vs Codestral-22BWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Grok-3 and Codestral-22B across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Grok-3 vs Codestral-22B — which is better?

Grok-3 (by xAI) and Codestral-22B (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.

Choose Grok-3 if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2025

Choose Codestral-22B if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok-3 and Codestral-22Bdon'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 Grok-3 specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Grok-3 specifies output context (8,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok-3
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Codestral-22B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok-3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Codestral-22B does not.

Grok-3 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok-3

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Codestral-22B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-3 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Codestral-22B uses MNPL-0.1.

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

Grok-3

Proprietary

Closed source

Codestral-22B

MNPL-0.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-3 was released on 2025-02-17, while Codestral-22B was released on 2024-05-29.

Grok-3 is 9 months newer than Codestral-22B.

Grok-3

Feb 17, 2025

1.3 years ago

8mo newer
Codestral-22B

May 29, 2024

2.0 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok-3 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-17, while Codestral-22B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok-3's training data extends to 2024-11-17, but cannot make a direct comparison without Codestral-22B's cutoff date.

Grok-3

Nov 2024

Codestral-22B

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AI
Has open weights
xAIGrok-3
Mistral AICodestral-22B
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok-3
Mistral AI
Codestral-22B

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-3 vs Codestral-22B.

Which is better, Grok-3 or Codestral-22B?

Grok-3 (xAI) and Codestral-22B (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok-3 compare to Codestral-22B in benchmarks?

Grok-3 scores AIME 2024: 93.3%, AIME 2025: 93.3%, GPQA: 84.6%, LiveCodeBench: 79.4%, MMMU: 78.0%. Codestral-22B scores HumanEvalFIM-Average: 91.6%, HumanEval: 81.1%, MBPP: 78.2%, Spider: 63.5%, HumanEval-Average: 61.5%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-3 and Codestral-22B?

Grok-3 supports 128K tokens and Codestral-22B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok-3 and Codestral-22B?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MNPL-0.1). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-3 and Codestral-22B?

Grok-3 is developed by xAI and Codestral-22B is developed by Mistral AI.

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