Mistral AI
French AI lab offering frontier open-weight and proprietary models with strong reasoning, coding, and multimodal capabilities via a unified API.
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Overview
Mistral AI is a French AI company founded in 2023 by former DeepMind and Meta researchers. It offers both open-weight models and proprietary frontier models through its La Plateforme API, covering text, code, and multimodal tasks.
Developers choose Mistral for its strong coding (Codestral, Devstral), reasoning (Magistral), and embedding model lineup, plus OpenAI-compatible endpoints and a free tier that requires no credit card to start.
How to Get an API Key
- Go to console.mistral.ai and sign up or sign in with your account.
- In the left sidebar, navigate to 'API Keys', then click 'Create new key'.
- Name your key, copy it immediately — it is shown only once.
- To use the API beyond the free tier limits, go to 'Subscription' and enable Pay-as-you-go.
- Use the key as a Bearer token against Mistral's OpenAI-compatible base URL: api.mistral.ai/v1.
Common Models
Current Offers
Free tier — limited API access included
All accounts get limited API access for free with no credit card required. Rate limits vary by model — see the limits page at console.mistral.ai for details.
Enable Pay-as-you-go in the Subscription page to unlock higher rate limits beyond the free tier.
FAQ
Is there a free tier for the Mistral API?
Yes. All accounts include limited API access for free. Pay-as-you-go must be explicitly enabled in the Subscription page to access higher rate limits.
Are Mistral APIs OpenAI-compatible?
Yes. La Plateforme exposes OpenAI-compatible endpoints at api.mistral.ai/v1. You can often swap the base URL and API key in existing OpenAI SDK code.
Can I access Mistral from China?
Mistral does not have a China-specific site or domestic mirror. Access from mainland China may require a proxy. Consider aggregator platforms like Silicon Flow that offer Mistral-equivalent models with domestic access.