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Head-to-head comparison

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Codestral 2508

Llama Guard 4 12B (Meta) and Codestral 2508 (Mistral AI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 17 August 2026

As of 17 August 2026, Codestral 2508 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#226 vs #229); Llama Guard 4 12B is 5× cheaper per output token ($0.18/1M vs $0.90/1M); and Llama Guard 4 12B offers the longer context window (1M vs 256K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose Llama Guard 4 12B if…

  • API cost matters — $0.18/1M output tokens against $0.90/1M, about 5× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.18/1M against $0.30/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 1M tokens against 256K.
  • you want provider choice — 2 listed API providers against 1.

Choose Codestral 2508 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #226 against #229 (0.0 vs 0.0 points).
  • you want the more recently listed model — Codestral 2508 was listed 1 August 2025, Llama Guard 4 12B 30 April 2025.

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Codestral 2508: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Llama Guard 4 12B and Codestral 2508
FieldLlama Guard 4 12BMetaCodestral 2508Mistral AI
ModelCap Index position#229#226
Index score0.00.0
EvidenceEstimatedEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$0.18$0.30
Output price / 1M tokens$0.18$0.90
Context window1M tokens256K tokens
Max output tokens16K—
API providers listed21
Weight accessGated accessAPI only
Input modalitiesImage, TextText, File
First listed30 April 20251 August 2025
PublisherMetaMistral AI

Evidence: publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated · publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Llama Guard 4 12B vs Codestral 2508

Neither model has a published result on a public benchmark board ModelCap tracks yet.

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Codestral 2508: common questions

Is Llama Guard 4 12B better than Codestral 2508?

Codestral 2508 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 August 2026: #226 against #229. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is Llama Guard 4 12B cheaper than Codestral 2508?

Llama Guard 4 12B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.18/1M against $0.90/1M. Input tokens are $0.18/1M for Llama Guard 4 12B and $0.30/1M for Codestral 2508. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Llama Guard 4 12B or Codestral 2508?

Llama Guard 4 12B has the larger context window: 1M tokens against 256K.

Which is better for coding, Llama Guard 4 12B or Codestral 2508?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Llama Guard 4 12B and Codestral 2508 open-weight models?

Llama Guard 4 12B: Gated access. Codestral 2508: API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Llama Guard 4 12B and Codestral 2508?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Llama Guard 4 12B and 1 for Codestral 2508, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Llama Guard 4 12B vs Codestral 2508 comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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