Mistral Small 4 on Mistral
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 and covered models are not published.
| Access | Free API tier |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Callable on Free mode: Mistral's own Free-mode quickstart verifies a new key with mistral-small-latest, which points to mistral-small-2603. Per-model RPS, tokens per minute and tokens per month are shown only in Admin Panel > API > 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-2603 |
| Base URL | https://api.mistral.ai/v1 |
| Last checked | 8 Oct 2026 |
How to use Mistral Small 4
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 $MISTRAL_API_KEY" -d '{"model":"mistral-small-2603","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'I want to use the free AI model "Mistral Small 4" from Mistral (model id: mistral-small-2603) 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: Limits shown after sign-in. 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 and covered models are not published.
- Prompts on the free tier may be used to train models. Keep customer data off it.
- Mistral AI Commercial Terms of Service (effective 25 Sep 2026) apply; they contain no clause specific to Free mode. The help center says Free mode 'has the lowest limits, intended for evaluation and prototyping'. No…
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is Mistral Small 4 on Mistral free?
Yes. Mistral offers it as free api tier, with these limits: Limits shown after sign-in. No credit card is needed.
Can I use Mistral Small 4 on Mistral commercially?
The provider’s terms do not say. Ask them before you build a product on it.
How do I start with Mistral Small 4 on Mistral?
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: docs.mistral.ai/getting-started/quickstarts/studio/activate-and-generate-api-key, checked 8 Oct 2026.