Credits
Last checked:Mistral always-free tier: Not stated officially
creditsapimistral
An AI company whose API serves Mistral models, with a default Free mode for evaluation and prototyping. Official site
Mistral always-free tier, the facts
| Amount | Not stated officially |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Always-free tier, no expiring credit |
| Expiry | Not stated officially |
| Payment method required | Not stated officially |
| Withdrawable as cash | No |
| What I ran on it | Not tested yet |
Filed under: AI API free credits
Good for
- Evaluating Mistral models in the default Free mode without paying
- Prototyping before turning on pay-as-you-go
Not for
- Anything needing published guaranteed quotas: Free mode numbers are org-specific
- Reading Le Chat Pro's $10 monthly API credits as the API free tier: that is a chat subscription perk
Mistral’s API starts everyone in Free mode: official wording says “Free mode (the default) has the lowest limits, intended for evaluation and prototyping.” There is no public numeric grant, no dollar credit, and no published token allowance; your actual quotas are org-specific and shown in your Admin Panel. The official pages do not state a card requirement for Free mode. Checked against the help center, usage-limits docs, and API pricing page on 2026-09-02.
What is officially stated, and what is not
Officially stated: Free mode exists, it is the default, and its limits are the lowest, meant for evaluation and prototyping. Not stated: any specific requests-per-minute, tokens-per-month, or dollar figure. A “1 billion tokens per month” figure circulates for Mistral’s free tier; it is not on the official pages I checked, so it does not get published here. If you see that number, apply the same test this site applies to OpenAI free credits: no official URL, no publication.
The Le Chat Pro confusion
Mistral sells Le Chat Pro, a chat subscription that includes $10 per month in API credits. That is a perk of a paid chat product, not the API’s Free mode, and counting it as a free API tier double-counts a subscription you pay for. The two offers live on different pages for a reason.
How the paid tiers work above Free
Turning on pay-as-you-go unlocks Tier 1, and higher tiers track cumulative billed usage: Tier 2 above 20 euros, Tier 3 at 100 euros, Tier 4 at 500 euros. One official rule worth quoting because it surprises people: “Adding credits does not raise your rate limits, you need to use our services and reach the required total-billing thresholds to unlock the next tier.” Tiers move on billed usage, not on wallet balance.
Choose or skip
Choose Mistral’s Free mode to evaluate the models at zero cost, accepting that your limits are whatever the Admin Panel shows your org. Skip it if you need published, dependable free quotas; Cohere’s trial key and OpenRouter’s free models both publish theirs.
What I have done with it
Not tested yet. This page reports only what the official pages state.
Every grant I track is on the credits index.
Mistral, common questions
Is the Mistral API free?
There is a free way to use it: the API starts everyone in Free mode by default, which official wording describes as having the lowest limits, intended for evaluation and prototyping. There is no dollar credit and no published token allowance, and the official pages do not state a card requirement for Free mode.
What are the Mistral free tier limits?
Not published. Official wording only says Free mode has the lowest limits; your actual quotas are org-specific and shown in your Admin Panel. A "1 billion tokens per month" figure circulates, but it is not on the official pages, so this page does not publish it.
Are Le Chat Pro's $10 monthly API credits the Mistral free tier?
No. Le Chat Pro is a paid chat subscription, and the $10 per month in API credits is a perk of that subscription, not the API's Free mode. Counting it as a free API tier double-counts a product you pay for.
What changed here
Added Mistral: Not stated officially.
Plus 1 recheck that found nothing changed. Every row links to the full record on the changelog, with the official page it was checked against.
Related entries
OpenRouter: 50 free-model requests/day
Cohere: 1,000 API calls per month on a trial key
OpenAI: None
Sources
Last checked:All numbers on this page come from the official pages above, checked on the date shown. If a figure is not stated there, this page says "Not stated officially" instead of guessing.