Mistral AI's Le Chat: A Fast European Challenger to American AI Assistants

I matched Mistral AI's new Le Chat app against ChatGPT, and it did surprisingly well

French AI developer Mistral AI has brought its AI chatbot, aptly named Le Chat, to mobile devices. Le Chat is a European alternative to U.S. offerings like ChatGPT and Google Gemini and Chinese-based tools like DeepSeek. Though Mistral has established a presence among AI developers, this is their first real attempt at a consumer-facing chatbot. Naturally, I wanted to test it out and see how well it worked. Although the abilities of these AI assistants overlap, it is still worth seeing if Le Chat could keep up. I didn't want to just test Le Chat in isolation, though. I decided to put it head-to-head against ChatGPT, the current default for many people when it comes to AI chatbots. I figured if Le Chat could hold its own in direct comparison, it was worth paying attention to. I tested both chatbots with prompts the average person might submit to an AI chatbot to help them out. I wrote prompts to solicit both AI chatbots for advice on improving someone's social life, solving a riddle, explaining complex issues to novices, and producing an image. Here's what happened. I started with a prompt that someone might ask an AI when in a new place and trying to figure out their social life. I asked both AI chatbots the following: "I just moved to a new city and don't know anyone. What are some practical ways to make new friends as an adult?" Both chatbots had some solid tips. Le Chat's response included ten ideas with accompanying explanations, and they were solid but lacked a lot of detail. ChatGPT went much more specific in coming up with apps and other details to pursue in making friends. Le Chat could do the same with some follow-ups, but at least initially, it kept to a more generic set of advice. That might be its international flavor since some of ChatGPT's advice would only make sense in the U.S. due to the availability of some mobile apps and kinds of activities. I always like using wordplay and logic questions to test out AI chatbots. I went for an old classic here, challenging the AIs to answer: "I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?" Le Chat and ChatGPT were both quick to give the correct answer, though ChatGPT, for some reason, had an enthusiastic exclamation point. The chatbots' explanations were also practically identical, suggesting that the choice between ChatGPT and Le Chat doesn't really matter in this case. To test how well the AI chatbots could explain something complex, I went with: "Can you explain how a mortgage works in simple terms for someone who has never owned a home before?" As can be seen above, both chatbots had no problem breaking down the definitions and functions of different aspects of a mortgage. If anything, they seemed to be pulling from similar sources. I noted that Le Chat's European origin didn't prevent it from using American dollars as an example. Otherwise, the only significant difference was that Le Chat's tone was a bit more formal than ChatGPT, which offered a more conversational phrasing when describing how mortgages work. Le Chat has multimodal capabilities, including a model for creating images. To wrap up the test, I devised a somewhat complex prompt for an image to see how the two models would compare on a visually creative task. I asked each chatbot: "Create a vibrant, high-fantasy illustration of a fearless medieval knight battling a colossal emerald-green dragon atop a mountain. The knight, in gleaming silver armor with gold engravings, wields a rune-glowing greatsword and raises his shield. The dragon coils around ancient stone ruins, smoke rising from its nostrils. A fiery sunset casts dramatic hues over swirling clouds and distant mountains." Both pictures look great despite notable differences in the details. The cinematic lighting and style are shared, but otherwise, the mountains, knights, and dragons are very different. Le Chat's dragon is more of a giant snake, though the knight's sword does have glowing runes, which ChatGPT's image lacks. That said, if you look closely, you will see that both images have classic AI flaws. ChatGPT's dragon's wings don't seem to connect to its body, and the only visible leg is oddly placed. Le Chat's knight has a shield that just sort of floats next to him, and the dragon's coils are arranged more like an Escher painting than a terrifying mythical beast. And the less said about the shape of the rune-carved gravestones in ChatGPT's image, the better. As expected, there's no clear "winner" between the two chatbots so much as two solid AI assistants. Le Chat did surprise me with just how fast and efficient it is, but at least from my tests, it's a little brusque and somewhat broad in its answers. That's not a bad thing if you want generalized answers and advice in a hurry. ChatGPT's answers sometimes seemed more like what a human would say in response to the prompts, with emotion-tinged language that appeared to match the energy of the requests, even if just to seem enthusiastic about a riddle. Further, while both AI chatbots produced exciting, if very flawed images, at least ChatGPT understood that the dragon fighting a medieval knight usually has wings, even if they aren't explicitly mentioned in the prompt. If I were asked to pick just one, I'd probably lean toward ChatGPT, but that may be as much about familiarity as anything else. If I lived in Europe, I might opt for Le Chat simply because it is more likely to avoid any regulatory pitfalls faced by OpenAI because it is based in the region. Otherwise, both AI chatbots can handle anything a casual AI chatbot user might toss their way. That should probably worry OpenAI as it strives to maintain a position of superiority, or at least the perception of such, against rivals like Mistral that may have the wind at their backs.

Mistral Le Chat vs. OpenAI ChatGPT: Performance, image, speed and more

Mistral AI made Le Chat available to everyone, bringing another AI chatbot into the mix. OpenAI's ChatGPT, particularly its free version, has long dominated the AI assistant space, but Mistral is betting big on its faster responses, deeper web integration, and more flexible AI capabilities. So, how do these two free AI chatbots compare? We break down the differences in features, performance, and real-world usability to see if Le Chat is finally a worthy ChatGPT alternative -- or even a better choice. DeepSeek R1 vs o3-mini in performance, cost, and usability showdown When it comes to speed and reasoning, Le Chat and ChatGPT take different approaches. Mistral AI claims that Le Chat is the fastest AI assistant, delivering responses at up to 1000 words per second with its Flash Answers feature. Meanwhile, OpenAI's GPT-4o mini balances speed with thoughtful, structured responses, though it lacks the same real-time quickness that Le Chat advertises. Le Chat's Flash Answers allow near-instant responses, particularly for straightforward queries. This makes it useful for quick lookups, brainstorming, or rapid summarization tasks. However, this speed may come at the cost of depth, as faster models sometimes provide shorter, less nuanced answers. ChatGPT's GPT-4o mini takes a more measured approach. It doesn't prioritize ultra-fast delivery, but instead aims for coherent and detailed responses, making it more reliable for complex reasoning and structured writing tasks. Le Chat integrates information from real-time web sources, breaking news, and social media, giving it an advantage in timeliness. For users looking for current events, stock trends, or real-time sports scores, Le Chat may provide more relevant and up-to-date insights. ChatGPT, on the other hand, relies on pre-trained knowledge and has limited access to web browsing. While it can still fetch recent information, it doesn't actively prioritize breaking news or integrate as many external sources. However, its knowledge base is often more structured and reliable because it avoids pulling from unverified sources. Both assistants offer code execution and advanced data analysis, but Le Chat takes it a step further with in-place code execution, OCR document scanning, and superior file processing capabilities. Its ability to analyze PDFs, spreadsheets, and log files with high accuracy gives it an edge for users who frequently work with documents and technical data. One major upcoming difference between the two services is their approach to automation and customization: Le Chat provided a well-structured financial breakdown of Bitcoin's latest market movements, dividing the summary into sections like Market Volatility, Trade Tariffs Impact, and Investor Sentiment. The response emphasized specific price changes and macroeconomic factors, such as Donald Trump's trade policies, which were linked to cryptocurrency declines. However, while the summary was organized, it lacked deep source integration -- only citing AFP News and FXStreet without direct article links. This makes Le Chat effective for users who need quick, structured insights, but less useful for those seeking broader analysis or verifying information through multiple sources. ChatGPT, in contrast, delivered a more contextual and narrative-driven summary, focusing on institutional investments, ETF inflows, and broader market sentiment rather than just percentage drops. It referenced MicroStrategy's growing Bitcoin holdings and delayed U.S. tariffs, adding long-term financial trends to its response. A major advantage was source diversity -- ChatGPT cited Yahoo Finance, The Economic Times, and Investor's Business Daily, linking directly to recent articles. This makes it better for users who want a comprehensive macroeconomic view rather than a strict financial snapshot. Le Chat delivered a stunning, highly detailed, and artistically rich image, making full use of Black Forest Labs' Flux Ultra model. The lighting in the scene is natural and cinematic, with soft shadows and warm highlights that create a sense of realism. The textures are crisp, from the boy's clothing and hair to the fine details in the dog's fur and the forest environment. The composition is well-balanced, with depth of field and perspective handled expertly -- the focus remains on the subjects while the background subtly fades. This level of quality is closer to high-end digital artwork than a typical AI-generated image, demonstrating Mistral's strength in image synthesis. ChatGPT provided a comprehensive and well-structured summary of the research paper, breaking it down into sections like key problem, hypothesis, methodology, findings, and implications. The response was thorough and precise, maintaining all critical elements of the study while ensuring readability. The structure made it easy to follow, and the step-by-step breakdown of Human-Human, Human-AI, and AI-AI experiments highlighted how the paper supported its claims. Additionally, ChatGPT's version included detailed conclusions and implications for AI safety, making it highly valuable for those seeking a deeper understanding of the research. However, it leaned towards a longer, academic style summary, which may be excessive for users looking for a quick, digestible recap. Below is ChatGPT's answer: Le Chat's summary was also well-organized and clearly formatted, but it leaned toward a more concise, high-level explanation of the study. It followed a logical structure, beginning with an overview of the problem, then outlining key concepts, methodology, and conclusions. While it covered all the major takeaways, it did not delve as deeply into the individual experiment findings as ChatGPT did. Instead, Le Chat focused on impact and real-world implications, which might be preferable for readers who want a straight-to-the-point summary rather than a fully detailed analysis. Overall, both AI assistants performed well, but ChatGPT excelled in depth, while Le Chat provided a more streamlined, executive-style summary. Below is Le Chat's answer: The Le Chat vs. ChatGPT Free comparison reveals that both AI assistants excel in different areas, making the choice highly dependent on what users prioritize. If speed, real-time information, and powerful image generation are your primary needs, Le Chat is the clear winner. It dominates in news retrieval, document analysis, and artistic visuals, offering faster responses and cutting-edge media synthesis. However, it currently lacks some advanced customization features, such as Custom GPTs, and its citation depth in research tasks is somewhat limited. Users who need quick, structured insights rather than in-depth reasoning will find Le Chat's efficiency unmatched. On the other hand, ChatGPT Free provides a more balanced, structured, and reliable experience, making it better for those who value detailed responses, well-organized summaries, and a polished user experience. It may not be as fast as Le Chat, but it offers stronger citations, better contextual reasoning, and the ability to create Custom GPTs, which adds significant flexibility. However, its image generation is subpar, and some features, like advanced code execution and file handling, are limited in the free tier. If you need depth, coherence, and customization, ChatGPT Free remains a strong contender. Ultimately, Le Chat is the AI for fast, media-rich, and real-time tasks, while ChatGPT excels in structured knowledge, citations, and thoughtful AI reasoning.

Le Chat: A faster European alternative to American AI

Mistral AI's Le Chat has quickly established itself as a standout in the world of artificial intelligence assistants. Combining exceptional speed, advanced capabilities, and a user-centric design, it is poised to compete with leading platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. With its unique features and European roots, Le Chat is carving out a distinct identity in the competitive AI landscape. At the heart of Le Chat's appeal is its unmatched speed. Powered by Mistral's cutting-edge models and inference engines, it processes up to 1000 words per second. This makes it one of the fastest AI tools available, enabling users to complete tasks like drafting emails, summarising articles, or solving complex problems in record time. Also read: DeepSeek data breach: A grim warning for AI security This high-speed performance does not compromise quality. Le Chat excels in reasoning and reflection, ensuring that its responses are both quick and accurate. For professionals and everyday users alike, this efficiency translates into significant time savings. Le Chat's natural language processing capabilities set it apart from many competitors. It handles a wide range of tasks, from technical challenges like coding and data analysis to creative endeavours such as content creation. Its ability to understand context ensures that responses are relevant and precise. What makes Le Chat even more powerful is its integration with real-time data sources. By pulling information from web searches, journalism outlets, and social media platforms, it delivers up-to-date and evidence-based answers tailored to user needs. Le Chat also stands out for its ability to provide real-time information with credibility. Through partnerships such as the one with Agence France-Presse (AFP), it delivers reliable news coverage alongside other real-time updates from trusted sources. This ensures that users receive accurate information when they need it most. A key feature that enhances Le Chat's usability is its upcoming "Memories" functionality. This opt-in feature allows the assistant to remember user preferences over time, making interactions more personalised. Also read: What is Distillation of AI Models: Explained in short Users can track goals, revisit past conversations, and receive tailored suggestions based on their unique requirements. This personalisation ensures that Le Chat evolves alongside its users, adapting to their habits and preferences for a more customised experience. Le Chat goes beyond being a simple conversational assistant by supporting micro-apps and AI agents. These tools are designed for specific tasks such as managing personal finances, automating schedules, or streamlining workflows. Le Chat also excels in multimodal capabilities, offering features like image generation through the Flux Ultra model by Black Forest Labs. This technology produces vivid and photorealistic images that surpass many competitors in quality. Additionally, its built-in code interpreter allows users to perform data analysis, create visualisations, run simulations, and execute Python code directly within the platform. These advanced functionalities make Le Chat a powerful tool for technical users as well as creative professionals. Also read: OpenAI o3-mini vs. DeepSeek R1: Which one to choose? If we talk about the accessibility part, it is being available on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and web interfaces. Users can select from different models such as Mistral Small for fast responses, Mistral Large for detailed reasoning, or Mistral Next for concise solutions, depending on their specific needs. While most of Le Chat's features are free to use, it also offers a Pro subscription at $14.99 per month. The Pro tier includes benefits like unlimited messages, higher token limits, advanced tools such as Flash Answers, and the ability to opt out of data sharing with Mistral AI. This cost-effective pricing structure ensures that both casual users and professionals can access its advanced features without breaking the bank. Also read: Krutrim-2 - Can India's language-first AI outpace global benchmarks? For businesses, Le Chat offers enterprise-specific features such as private deployment options and secure integration with organisational tools. Developed by French startup Mistral AI, Le Chat positions itself as a strong European alternative to US-based platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude. By leveraging proprietary large language models (LLMs), Mistral demonstrates a commitment to innovation while maintaining independence from American tech giants.

Mistral's AI chatbot comes to iOS and Android - here's why you should try it

In the increasingly crowded field of AI assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, Mistral's Le Chat boasts some special talents. You can check it out for free. A little-known French startup company is attempting to compete with the likes of ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot with its own AI chatbot. Known as Le Chat, Mistral's AI service has already been accessible as a website and is now aiming to make a splash with its new mobile apps. Launched in April 2023, Mistral AI is a French artificial intelligence startup. Co-founded by former Meta employees Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample and former DeepMind researcher Arthur Mensch, Mistral has developed and released several large language models (LLMs), both commercial and open source. Mistral's LLMs are accessible not only through websites and mobile apps but via APIs for third-party applications. Also: Mistral AI says its Small 3 model is a local, open-source alternative to GPT-4o mini The Le Chat website works similarly to other AI sites. Beyond submitting your text-based questions and requests, you can upload a PDF or image file for analysis, tell it to generate an image, and ask it to interpret your code. Taking a page from ChatGPT, Le Chat can also work as a standard search engine. But there's more. A Canvas feature helps you create documents, presentations, code, mockups, and other content. You can modify and then preview the content directly in place without having to submit new requests. Soon you'll also be able to use AI-powered agents to carry out your requested tasks on their own. The basic version of Le Chat is free to use, with or without an account, however, paid plans are also in the mix. At $15 a month, a Pro subscription grants you unlimited access to Mistral's highest-performing models, an unlimited number of requests per day, and the ability to opt out of sharing your data. Starting at $25 per user per month, a Team plan designed for two or more people adds central management and dedicated support. To supplement the website, Mistral launched a mobile Le Chat app this week. Designed for iPhone, iPad, and Android users, the app is simply and cleanly designed but still allows you to generate images, analyze your photos, and access a history of your previous chats. Also: US sets AI safety aside in favor of 'AI dominance' What makes Le Chat so special that it's worth using, either on the web or on your mobile device? In a news post from last November, Mistral touted several new powers. The web search provides sources and citations so you can confirm the results. The Canvas tool is ideal for in-line editing and creating. Le Chat's analysis of documents and images that you upload is powered by Mistral's multimodal Pixtral Large, an LLM that at the time outperformed Claude-3.5 Sonnet, Gemini-1.5 Pro, and GPT-4o. The image generation is powered by Black Forest Labs' Flux Pro for faster speed and efficiency over previous versions and rival generators. Also: The best AI chatbots of 2025: ChatGPT, Copilot, and notable alternatives Mistral claims that its open-source Le Chat assistant is powered by the world's fastest inference engines, capable of responding to your prompts with up to 1,000 words per second, says TechCrunch, which found it faster than ChatGPT's 4o model. With ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and now DeepSeek popular among PC and mobile users, Mistral has its work cut out if it wants to compete with the major players. But with time and even more innovations, Le Chat may eke out its own top spot in the AI arena.

French AI startup Mistral launches Le Chat mobile app for iPhone, Android -- can it take enterprise eyes off DeepSeek?

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More While the AI market has in recent days seemed to collapse around DeepSeek and OpenAI, there are of course many other teams of brilliant engineers fielding large language models (LLMs) that are worth a look as a user or enterprise seeking to leverage the latest and greatest. Take Mistral AI, the French startup that made headlines even before it launched with a record-setting seed funding round for Europe of $640 million, and which has quietly been training and releasing a mix of open source and proprietary models for consumers and enterprises. Even as the rise of new reasoning models and agents have dominated the AI landscape recently, Mistral is still positioning itself as a viable alternative to OpenAI's signature chatbot ChatGPT, especially for those concerned with data privacy and security. Today, Mistral finally launched its own free, mobile version of its chatbot Le Chat for iOS and Android, as well as a new Enterprise tier for private infrastructure, and a Pro plan at $14.99 per month, the move suggests that Mistral AI is making a concerted push to convince companies there are worthwhile alternatives to DeepSeek and OpenAI. Mistral's le Chat offers business leaders an AI tool that integrates with enterprise environments, operates with high-speed performance, and -- importantly for some customers -- does not send user data to China, unlike DeepSeek. Mistral targets both consumer and enterprise with savvy new releases Mistral AI's latest rollout comes at a time when enterprises are increasingly evaluating AI partners based on data privacy, security, and deployment flexibility. The launch of le Chat's Enterprise tier, which allows businesses to deploy the assistant on private infrastructure, SaaS, or virtual private cloud (VPC), suggests that Mistral is targeting the same corporate users who may have previously considered OpenAI's GPT-4 or Anthropic's Claude but want more control over their data and models. Mistral's strategy mirrors a recent move by DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company that released DeepSeek-R1, a powerful reasoning model that offers capabilities and performance similar to OpenAI's "o" series of models (o1, o1-mini, o3-mini out now with o3 full to follow soon) but at a fraction of the lost (30 times less expensive for enterprise users than OpenAI o1). However, DeepSeek's expansion has been met in the West with privacy and security concerns related to China's data retention and censorship laws. Some analysts have raised questions about whether AI models developed by Chinese firms could be subject to Beijing's data access regulations, prompting enterprises to proceed cautiously when integrating such systems. For companies concerned about where their AI models process and store data, Le Chat's non-Chinese infrastructure could be a key selling point. Unlike DeepSeek, which operates under a Chinese legal framework, Mistral AI is a European company based in France, subject to EU data privacy laws (GDPR) rather than China's Cybersecurity Law or the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). Speed, accuracy, and enterprise Tools Mistral AI is betting that Le Chat's performance advantages will also help it stand out. The mobile app is powered by the company's latest low-latency AI models, which, according to Mistral, enable "Flash Answers" -- a feature that generates responses at speeds of up to 1,000 words per second. Beyond speed, Le Chat differentiates itself by integrating real-time web search and sourcing from journalistic and social media platforms, allowing for fact-grounded responses rather than relying solely on pre-trained knowledge. This makes Le Chat a potential alternative for businesses that require more up-to-date, evidence-based AI insights rather than static model training data. For enterprises, Le Chat also includes: * Code Interpreter: Allows in-place execution of scripts, scientific computations, and data visualization. * OCR & Document Processing: Industry-grade optical character recognition (OCR) for PDFs, spreadsheets, and even complex or low-quality images. * Image Generation: Powered by Black Forest Labs' Flux Ultra, enabling photorealistic content creation. Undercutting OpenAI and Anthropic on price Mistral AI is also taking a different approach to pricing compared to competitors. While OpenAI charges $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus and Anthropic's Claude has varying pricing based on token limits, Le Chat's Pro plan starts at $14.99 per month. Additionally, most features -- including the latest models, document uploads, and even image generation -- are free, with limits only kicking in for power users. For businesses looking at team-wide adoption, Le Chat Team provides priority support, unified billing, and integration credits, while Enterprise deployments allow companies to use their own custom AI models tailored to their organization's needs. Quick hands-on comparison I downloaded and tested Mistral's Le Chat iOS app on my iPhone briefly while writing and editing this piece, and compared some of my prompts to my default AI assistant, OpenAI's ChatGPT powered by GPT-4o. Le Chat was typically noticeably faster in its outputs than ChatGPT, but its Black Forest Labs Ultra model image generation capabilities were surprisingly not as adherent to my prompt as ChatGPT's built-in connection to OpenAI's DALL-E 3 image model, which is now 5 months old and hardly state-of-the-art anymore. Also, OpenAI's connectivity to web search provided a more rich diversity of sources than Le Chat, which defaulted to the AFP, a French yet English-language publishing news outlet and wire service that Mistral partnered with back in January 2025. See some of my comparisons of Le Chat and ChatGPT below. Le Chat's launch underscores a broader industry shift: while OpenAI and Anthropic remain dominant players, enterprises are actively evaluating alternative AI providers that offer better pricing, more flexible deployment options, and clearer data privacy guarantees. With DeepSeek facing scrutiny over its Chinese data links and OpenAI dealing with ongoing enterprise adoption challenges, Mistral AI's European positioning, fast performance, and competitive pricing could make it an increasingly attractive choice for businesses looking to integrate AI assistants into their workflows. For companies weighing their AI options, the latest iteration of Le Chat is a signal that viable non-U.S., non-Chinese AI alternatives are beginning to emerge -- and Mistral AI wants to be at the forefront of that shift.

Is Mistral's Le Chat Truly the "World's Fastest AI Assistant"?

Le Chat's Flash Answers is using Cerebras Inference, which is touted to be the 'fastest AI inference provider'. French AI startup Mistral unveiled the Le Chat app for iOS and Android a few days ago. The app functions as an AI chatbot or assistant, rivalling ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, among others. The app offers most of its features for free, with upgraded limits in the Pro tier, which costs $14.99 monthly. Le Chat offers web search, image and document understanding capabilities alongside code interpretation and image generation. Given the sheer number of AI assistant applications in the market, a new entrant must offer a formidable differentiation. Mistral claims its low-latency models are powered by the 'fastest inference engines on the planet'. Furthermore, Mistral also says that it responds faster than any other chat assistant, up to 1,100 words per second, via their Flash Answers feature. Thanks to Cerebras Cerebras Inference, a service that delivers high-speed processing to AI applications, is the secret sauce to its speed. According to the company, Cerebras Inference is the 'world's fastest AI inference provider' and makes Le Chat 10 times faster than GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5, and DeepSeek R1. Cerbras also revealed that the 123 billion-parameter Mistral Large model is behind Le Chat. Mistral and Cerebras compared Le Chat with Claude 3.5 Sonnet and ChatGPT-4o using a prompt to generate a snake game using Python. The results from Mistral's YouTube video revealed that ChatGPT outputs 85 tokens per second, Claude 120 tokens per second, and Le Chat outperformed the two with 1,100 tokens per second. In a video by Cerebras, it was revealed that Le Chat took 1.3 seconds to complete the task, Claude took 3.5 Sonnet took 19 seconds, and GPT-4o took 46 seconds. "This performance is made possible by the Wafer Scale Engine 3's SRAM-based inference architecture in combination with speculative decoding techniques developed in collaboration with researchers at Mistral," said Cerebras in a blogpost. Several users also resonate with these claims. A user named Marc on X said that the model is "mind-blowingly fast" and added that it built a simple React application in less than 5 seconds. Here's What We Found in Our Real-World Tests Besides, we at AIM also conducted a real-time test of some of the leading models, albeit with a different prompt, which expects AI models to solve a Chemistry numerical problem from an IIT-JEE question paper - which is often considered one of the world's most difficult examinations. We considered OpenAI's GPT-4o, o3 Mini, o3 Mini High, Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1, Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash, and of course, Mistral's Le Chat. The following question was used as input: "Ice at -10°C is to be converted into steam at 110°C. The mass of ice is 10 kg. What amount of heat is required?" While we timed the results, Mistral's Le Chat was the fastest model, but it comes with a caveat. Le Chat returned the output in less than 4 seconds in three out of six times we tested the model. On the other hand, Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash returned the output under 6 seconds all the times we tested it. It begs the question of whether Flash Answers came into action each time despite being enabled by default. Note that we were using the free version of the Le Chat assistant, and the pro version provides an upgraded limit to the Flash Answers feature. Moreover, the speeds at which these models perform also depend upon the nature of the queries. Reasoning models, with their lengthy chain of thoughts, prioritise the accuracy of the answer and are bound to take more time. For instance, when we tested the prompt with DeepSeek R1, it took over a minute to complete the problem, with a chain of thoughts that involved verification steps, where the model said, "But let me check if all the values are correct. Did I use the right specific heat for steam?" and so on. Furthermore, it also took a great deal of time to ensure the answer was provided with the right number of decimal figures. A test from Artificial Analysis revealed that OpenAI's o3-mini was the fastest model among the competition, which outputs 214 tokens per second, ahead of the o1-mini, at 167 tokens per second. According to Artificial Analysis, o3-mini also achieved a high score of 89 on its Quality Index, which is on par with o1 (90 points) and DeepSeek R1 (89 points). This quality index quantifies the overall capabilities of the AI model. OpenAI has prioritised inference time scaling to deliver outputs at higher speeds. With Cerbreas' inference capabilities, Mistral seems to have joined the race. Moreover, there is an ongoing battle of token speeds between inference providers like Cerebras, Groq, and SambaNova. These ambitions to deliver high-speed responses align with what Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, said last year. He envisioned a future where AI systems perform various tasks, such as tree search, chain of thought, and mental simulations, reflecting on their own answers and responding in real-time -- within a single second.

Another AI assistant for iPhone? This one's different

Did we really need another AI assistant on the iPhone? Perhaps not, but a new one has arrived. Le Chat, developed by Mistral, is a French-based AI assistant that was previously only available online. It has now been launched on the App Store and Google Play Store. Once called Europe's great hope for AI, Le Chat uses Mistral's native language models, such as Mistral Large and Pixtral Large. Thus, the app competes with other AI chatbots, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Recommended Videos Mistral Large and Pixtral Large are advanced AI models, but they significantly differ in their capabilities. Mistral Large is a powerful large language model (LLM) designed for text-based tasks. It excels at generating creative content, translating languages, writing various types of creative works, and providing informative answers to questions. Please enable Javascript to view this content In contrast, Pixtral Large is a cutting-edge multimodal language model that can understand and reason with both text and visual data. It combines a text decoder with a vision encoder, enabling it to process and analyze images alongside text. This allows Pixtral Large to excel in tasks such as document analysis, chart interpretation, and understanding natural images, going beyond the text-only capabilities of Mistral Large. As TechCrunch explains, Le Chat is known for being able to answer up to 1,000 words per second. It also promises better image generation and better privacy than competitor products. Le Chat includes natural language conversations, real-time internet searches, and document analysis. It integrates pre-trained knowledge with current web searches, journalism, and social media content to provide a range of information sources. With its user-friendly interface and functional capabilities, Le Chat aims to assist users in managing daily life and work complexities. As Mistral launches Le Chat for mobile, it has also introduced a new paid plan called Le Chat Pro, available for $14.99 per month. This plan offers unlimited access to Mistral's highest-performing model and web browsing capabilities. Additionally, users can send an unlimited number of messages per day, enjoy extended access to news, upload files without restriction, and take advantage of other enhanced features. AI chatbots are currently among the most popular apps in the App Store. ChatGPT, the newly launched DeepSeek, and Google Gemini are all in the top 10. It will be interesting to see if Le Chat finds an audience among iPhone and Android users.

Mistral's Le Chat AI Assistant Now Has iOS and Android Apps

Mistral released iOS and Android apps for its Le Chat artificial intelligence (AI) assistant on Thursday. The Paris-based AI firm's chatbot was earlier available only as a web client but is now being pushed across more platforms. Powered by Mistral's large language models (LLMs), Le Chat can answer general queries, perform web searches, accept multimodal input, generate images, and execute code in a sandboxed environment. Additionally, the company has also introduced two new subscription tiers for its chatbot, offering better AI models and higher rate limits. In a newsroom post, the AI firm announced the launch of iOS and Android apps for Le Chat. The chatbot app, which competes with Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, and Anthropic's Claude offers similar capabilities, but the company has highlighted several unique offerings as well. While all major chatbots today can answer queries, have conversations, generate images, perform web searches, and even help write code, Le Chat's unique offerings are in terms of speed and quality. Mistral claims it uses "the fastest inference engines on the planet" and the chatbot can generate up to 1,000 words per second. Gadgets 360 staff members tested the app and found the response generation time to be slightly faster than ChatGPT and Gemini. This feature is available to all users, and can also be accessed without creating an account. Mistral also claims to offer high-quality image generation. It uses the Black Forest Labs Flux Ultra model to generate images, offering photorealistic output and strong adherence to prompts. While image preference is subjective, in our testing, Le Chat was able to deliver satisfactory output. Another unique offering by Le Chat is the ability to deploy it in a secure environment for enterprises. Since enterprises would not prefer sensitive and financial information to be hosted on third-party cloud servers, Mistral will allow businesses to deploy them locally, connect with custom tools, and use customised models. The offering will be part of the Le Chat Enterprise subscription, which has been launched in a private preview. Apart from the Enterprise tier, Mistral has also announced two separate subscription tiers -- Pro and Team. The Pro subscription is priced at $14.99 (roughly Rs. 1,310) a month and offers Mistral's highest-performing models, unlimited messages, higher rate limits, and an option to opt out of sharing data with the company. The Team subscription is aimed at businesses and costs $24.99 (roughly Rs. 2,180) per user per month.

Mistral releases its AI assistant on iOS and Android | TechCrunch

Mistral, the company that is sometimes considered as Europe's great hope for AI, is releasing several updates to Le Chat, its AI assistant product. In addition to a major upgrade to the web interface, the company is releasing a mobile app on iOS and Android to access Le Chat from your phone. As a reminder, Mistral develops its own large language models. The company's flagship models, such as Mistral Large or its multimodal model Pixtral Large, are available for commercial use through an API or through a cloud partner, such as Azure AI Studio, Amazon Bedrock and Google's Vertex AI. It also releases a number of open-weight models under the Apache 2.0 license. Mistral aims to position itself as a credible alternative to OpenAI or Anthropic. In addition to developing foundation models, it offers an AI assistant called Le Chat that competes directly with ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. That's why Mistral is finally releasing a mobile app for Le Chat so that it can better compete for a coveted spot on your phone's home screen. The mobile app features the usual chatbot interface. You can query Mistral's AI model and ask followup questions in a simple conversation-like interface. Over the last few months, Le Chat has evolved to become a competent AI assistant. In November 2024, Mistral added support for web search with citations. It also lets you generate images or interact with free-form canvas to edit text or code in a separate window. More recently, the company signed a wide-ranging deal with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to ground results with a reliable source of information. However, there's no voice mode in Mistral's mobile app for people who rely a lot on voice interactions to query AI assistants. With today's update to Le Chat, Mistral is also introducing a Pro tier for $14.99 per month, or €14.99 per month in Europe. While the company is no longer detailing the exact AI model it is using under the hood, the company says the Pro plan comes with access to the "highest-performing model," which suggests that free accounts don't have access to the top-of-the-line model. Other benefits include higher limits across the board and the ability to opt out of sharing your data with Mistral -- the company is bringing the pay-or-consent model to AI assistants. So what makes Mistral stand out from the competition? The company doesn't claim that it has better models than the competition. But it asserts that, from a product standpoint, it can sometimes outperform its competitors. For instance, Mistral states that Le Chat runs on "the fastest inference engines on the planet" and it can answer up to 1,000 words per second. In our usage, it felt faster than using ChatGPT with the 4o model, indeed. Mistral also claims that it generates much better images compared to ChatGPT or Grok. The reason Mistral performs well on this front is that it relies on one of the leading image-generation models, Black Forest Labs' Flux Ultra model. Those are nice-to-have features, but one of the main distinguishing factors come with Le Chat's enterprise solution. Mistral lets you deploy Le Chat in your environment with custom models and a custom user interface. If you work in defense or banking, you may need to be able to deploy an AI assistant on premise. And it's currently not possible with ChatGPT Enterprise or Claude Enterprise. That will help when it comes to growing the company's revenue. But first, let's see if Mistral's mobile app can persuade some AI enthusiasts to try its chatbot. As of this writing, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini hold the #2, #3, and #6 spots, respectively, among the most downloaded iPhone apps in the U.S.

Nvidia-backed 'le Chat' enters AI race, 13x faster than ChatGPT

In contrast, according to Mensch, Le Chat has attracted "several million" regular users, highlighting the competitive landscape that Mistral must navigate. Mistral's influence extends beyond its products. Mensch acknowledged that some of the recent advancements made by DeepSeek were partly built on technology that Mistral made available to the public in 2023. "DeepSeek is something we've been waiting for," he said, emphasizing how the commitment to open-source development fosters innovation across the sector. Addressing the broader European context, Mensch argued for a strong European presence in artificial intelligence, particularly given the cultural nuances that technology embodies. "There's a cultural significance to artificial intelligence, and I think everyone is becoming aware of it. It's also about having European champions, and that's why we created Mistral," he explained, pointing out that local perspectives can shape AI development meaningfully.

Mistral AI chatbot 'Le Chat' now available as a native app for iOS

Mistral, a French company specializing in AI tools, has just launched a native app for its chatbot "Le Chat" for iOS. While previously the tool was only available through the web, iPhone and iPad users can now download the app for a better experience. For those unfamiliar, Mistral's Le Chat competes with other AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. As noted by TechCrunch, Mistral has its own language models such as Mistral Large and Pixtral Large, which are also available for commercial use via an API. Similar to its competitors, Mistral offers free and paid tiers for Le Chat with access to different features. According to Mistral, Le Chat can answer up to 1,000 words per second, which would be faster than ChatGPT's 4o model. It also has more advanced models for generating images. Moreover, Mistral claims to have better privacy than other AI chatbots. "Le Chat combines powerful AI with extensive information on the web to help you rediscover the world. Enjoy natural conversations, real-time internet search, comprehensive document analysis, and much more," the app description reads. Le Chat is now available for free on the App Store, and it requires an iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.1 or later. Mistral has also launched an Android version on Google Play. Paid plans with unlimited use start at $14.99 per month. More details can be found on the Mistral website.

Mistral adds major updates to its AI assistant, mobile apps and high-speed responses - SiliconANGLE

Mistral adds major updates to its AI assistant, mobile apps and high-speed responses Paris-based artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI rolled out several major updates to its AI assistant Le Chat today, including new features and mobile apps, while overhauling its pricing structure. Front and center, Mistral provided a feature upgrade to the AI assistant called "Flash Answers," available to users of all tiers, that provides answers up to 1,000 words per second. According to Mistral, this speed allows its assistant to reason, reflect and respond "faster than any other chat assistant" available on the market. This only applies to text answers, if an image is requested, the response time may be longer. The company also introduced a code interpreter to Le Chat, which will allow it to perform execution, analysis, visualization and simulation. The assistant can generate Python code directly in a prompt or upload a comma-delimited file and have it visualize data to generate insights. It allows users to quickly and easily do simple calculations and plotting, data analysis and plotting, and scientific computing. Anthropic PDC added a similar feature last year to Claude, the company's generative AI chatbot, that allows it to analyze data, perform complex math and create visualizations using JavaScript. Mistral upgraded Le Chat's image generation capabilities with Black Forest Labs Inc.' Flux Ultra model. Mistral said it is the company's leading image generation model, which can generate anything from imaginative, vivid pictures or a photorealistic image. According to the company, image generation is better than OpenAI or Grok. Mistral added web search capabilities with citations to its AI assistant in November, similar to ChatGPT, Gemini and the generative AI search engine Perplexity. More recently, the company also signed a partnership deal with the Agence France-Presse, a leading global news agency, known for providing fast, comprehensive news coverage to deliver newswire stories to Mitral's AI assistant. This integration allows users to receive responses enriched with up-to-date factual information backed by current news. Although most interactions with the AI assistant are free for most users, Mistral introduced a Pro tier for $14.99 per month. Benefits of buying into the Pro subscription include unlimited messages per day, unlimited web browsing, extended access to news, file uploads, data analysis and Flash answers. Pro subscribers can also opt-out of data sharing with the company.

Mistral AI's 'Le Chat' Chatbot Now Available on iPhone

If you haven't had enough of AI apps, there's yet another to download and try out as of today. European company Mistral's Le Chat chatbot can now be used through a dedicated iOS app. Mistral is a French AI company founded by engineers from Google and Meta. It creates its own open-weight large language models, and is aiming to compete with OpenAI. Le Chat has been available on the web, but the app will make it better able to compete with ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, and other options. Like many competing chatbots, Le Chat supports natural language conversations, real-time web search, document analysis, and image generation. LeChat is free to use, but access to the highest performing models is limited. A $14.99 per month fee unlocks a Pro tier with unlimited web browsing, extended access to news, and unlimited messaging.

French startup Mistral rolls out app in escalating AI race

PARIS (Reuters) - Nvidia-backed French startup Mistral AI rolled out a new app for its generative AI software on Thursday, hot on the heels of last month's launch of a new AI assistant by China's DeepSeek. The little-known Chinese company rocked global markets by showing it could go head-to-head with U.S. heavyweights in the field, while charging much less. Paris-based Mistral AI, founded two years ago, says its open source Le Chat assistant is powered by the world's fastest inference engines, responding with up to 1,000 words per second. Its launch is well-timed, with a focus on alternatives to OpenAI's ChatGPT and days before Paris hosts an AI summit. "The French and the whole world are realising that European players count and that they provide cutting-edge technology," Mistral AI CEO and co-founder Arthur Mensch told Reuters. Mistral AI, which is reported to be valued at 5.8 billion euros ($6.01 billion), won financial backing from AI chip leader Nvidia and is often touted by French President Emmanuel Macron. Despite early success, it has been overshadowed by the popularity of ChatGPT, which had 200 million weekly active users, said OpenAI in August, compared with "several million subscribers" regularly using Le Chat, Mensch said. Mensch, 32, said he knows DeepSeek well and was not surprised by its latest innovation. DeepSeek had benefited from technology shared by Mistral via open source in 2023, he said. "DeepSeek is something we've been waiting for," he said, adding: "We are a company that builds products on open source solutions. So whenever there is new open source technology, we benefit from it." Mensch highlighted a need for a European alternative to Chinese and American offerings, saying that his ultimate goal was to make AI "more open and more accessible to everyone". "There is a cultural dimension to AI, and I think everyone is starting to realise this. It's also about having European champions, and that's why we created Mistral," he said. Mistral's new chat assistant, previously only available on a web browser, is the mainstream version of a product also being offered to businesses. The company says it has already signed partnerships with "several dozen" large companies, including with French water and waste management group Veolia. Mistral AI also announced a partnership with the French jobs agency earlier in the week and has more in the pipeline with other European authorities, said Mensch. However, that represents a fraction of the partnerships won by U.S. heavyweights, who are also set to benefit from President Donald Trump's Stargate project. Mensch said Mistral AI, which has raised more than 1 billion euros to date, was "very well-funded". Commenting on speculation about an IPO, he said that it was "not a short-term ambition at all". (Reporting by Florence Loeve; Editing by Dominique Patton and Alexander Smith)