Mistral Studio Free mode
Mistral AI Free API tier
The catch: In Free mode Mistral may train on your inputs and outputs unless you switch it off in Admin > Privacy, and the actual limits are not published.
| Access | Free API tier |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Free mode is the default for new accounts (formerly the 'Experiment' plan on La Plateforme, now Mistral Studio), with no credit card required. Limits are set per model: requests per second, tokens per minute and tokens per month, plus included monthly usage shared across Studio, the API and Vibe Code. Mistral no longer publishes the numbers; they appear only in Admin Panel > API > Limits (admin.mistral.ai/plateforme/limits). |
| Modality | text, code |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Commercial use | – |
| Trains on your data | Yes, on the free tier |
| Licence or terms | Mistral AI Commercial Terms of Service (effective 25 Sep 2026) |
| Context window | 256,000 tokens |
| Model id | mistral-small-latest |
| Base URL | https://api.mistral.ai/v1 |
| Last checked | 2 Oct 2026 |
How to use Mistral Small and family
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://api.mistral.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
curl https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" -d '{"model":"mistral-small-latest","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello, Mistral!"}]}'I want to use the free AI model "Mistral Small and family" from Mistral (model id: mistral-small-latest) in my project. Please: 1. Check the provider docs and give me the exact steps to get a free API key. 2. Give me a minimal working example that reads the key from an environment variable. 3. Tell me the real free limits and any catch (commercial use, card, data use). Listed limits: Free mode for new accounts; limits shown in the console only. 4. If the same provider has a more generous free option, mention it.
Before you ship on it
- In Free mode Mistral may train on your inputs and outputs unless you switch it off in Admin > Privacy, and the actual limits are not published.
- Prompts on the free tier may be used to train models. Keep customer data off it.
- Mistral Commercial Terms of Service (effective 25 Sep 2026) apply; the help center describes Free mode as 'intended for evaluation and prototyping' but no explicit ban on commercial use was found.
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is Mistral Studio Free mode free?
Yes. Mistral offers it as free api tier, with these limits: Free mode for new accounts; limits shown in the console only. No credit card is needed.
Can I use Mistral Studio Free mode commercially?
The provider’s terms do not say. Ask them before you build a product on it.
How do I start with Mistral Studio Free mode?
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://api.mistral.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Source: help.mistral.ai/en/articles/698531-why-am-i-hitting-api-rate-limits-and-how-do-i-increase-, checked 2 Oct 2026.