- Mistral, the French AI company, has unveiled Le Chat, a chatbot to rival ChatGPT, aiming to serve as a gateway for users to interact with Mistral’s models.
- Le Chat offers both free and paid versions, with pricing based on token usage, and Mistral has also introduced an enterprise version with self-deployment capabilities.
- Additionally, Mistral’s recent agreement with Microsoft underscores a broader trend of collaboration in AI development, with Mistral becoming the second company to offer commercial language models on Microsoft Azure.
Recently, the highly anticipated French AI company Mistral announced the launch of its AI chatbot Le Chat, seen as a strong competitor to ChatGPT, aiming to serve as a ‘conversation gateway’ for users to interact with various models under Mistral’s umbrella, such as Mistral Large, Mistral Small, and Next.
Currently, Le Chat has opened beta testing, allowing users to experience it by registering as beta testers. Additionally, Mistral also offers an ‘enterprise version’ equipped with ‘self-deployment capabilities’ and a ‘fine-tuned review mechanism.’
Also read: Apple pilots ChatGPT-like tool called ‘Ask’ for customer service
The pricing of Le Chat depends on the selected model
Similar to ChatGPT, which offers free and paid plans, Le Chat also provides both free and paid versions. However, unlike ChatGPT Plus with a fixed monthly fee of $20, Le Chat adopts an on-demand payment model based on tokens. The pricing of Le Chat depends on the selected model, with the most affordable open-mistral-7b model charging $0.25 per million tokens for input and output, while the more powerful mistral-large-2402 model charges $8 and $24 per million tokens for input and output, respectively.
Microsoft recently reached an agreement with Mistral
It’s worth noting that Microsoft recently reached an agreement with Mistral to accelerate the latter’s AI development. The financial details of this deal have not been disclosed, but it clearly indicates that OpenAI is not the exclusive focus of Microsoft, and Microsoft has not fully monopolised the field of artificial intelligence.
Mistral becomes the second company, after OpenAI, to offer commercial language models on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Currently, Mistral is valued at approximately €2 billion, while for comparison, Microsoft has invested at least $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019.
