{"slug": "le-chat", "name": "Le Chat", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 7, "warners": 1, "score": 1.865, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2026-02-05", "latest": "2026-07-07", "why": "Mistral performs well for me and I see no reason to use something else.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 3, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Mistral performs well for me and I see no reason to use something else.", "icon": false, "domain": "mistral.ai", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://mistral.ai", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Le Chat", "Mistral Le Chat"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 780535360, "item_id": 48783460, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48783460", "by": "jnurmine", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mistral performs well for me and I see no reason to use something else.", "excerpt": "I use Claude with Kiro at work and at home Mistral stuff with pro subscription for coding and research. I don't see a fundamental difference between them in results, at least with what I use them for. The cost is lower too, but it is not the only reason why I won't use Claude at home. Vibe (the CLI Kiro-like tool) feels more \"Claude-ish\" as it has more terse answers, while the Le Chat can get quite chatty if you real", "context": "uses Claude with Kiro at work, Mistral at home", "use_case": "coding, research, genealogy", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leanstral 1.5"}, {"id": 772288608, "item_id": 48268038, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268038", "by": "espadrine", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Le Chat as default search engine", "excerpt": "I use Le Chat as default search engine, using this search engine string: https://chat.mistral.ai/chat?q=Give%20a%20list%20of%20links%20to%20webpages%20that%20best%20solve%20this%20search%20engine%20query%2C%20ordered%20by%20relevance%3A%0A%0A%s%0A%0A-%20Search%20in%20the%20language%20of%20the%20query%0A-%20Your%20answer%20should%20only%20include%20the%20list%2C%20no%20intro%0A-%20Use%20an%20ordered%20list%2C%20with%2", "context": "", "use_case": "default search engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 781074336, "item_id": 48817146, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817146", "by": "Scroll_Swe", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mistral was amazing at first, Le Chat. Almost as good, generous free limits, good docs. Now? Just plain bad.", "excerpt": "Let me repost another comment of mine. TLDR: Yes, ofc we use Microsoft, Amazon (AWS), Cloudflare and Cisco... There is even mainstream press articles about it here in Sweden. \"dependance on microsoft ooh so bad\" etc. I find it laughable. Unless you have a time machine to 2005 (EC2 came out in 2006 that should have been the signal) there is no way to compete now. That train has left the platform. Second, Nokia and Eri", "context": "Based in Sweden", "use_case": "AI assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors"}]}], "who": [{"by": "jnurmine", "context": "uses Claude with Kiro at work, Mistral at home", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48783460", "date": "2026-07-04"}, {"by": "phillc73", "context": "paying subscriber upgrading to Teams plan", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48246706", "date": "2026-05-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["ai assistant", "coding, research, genealogy", "default search engine", "ai coding", "general chat, french grammar", "question/answer research"], "compared": [{"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "lumo", "name": "Lumo", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48816612", "title": "Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48738938", "title": "Leanstral 1.5", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266051", "title": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48238896", "title": "Microsoft Drops Claude Code After Budget Overrun", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47949642", "title": "Mistral Medium 3.5", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47189650", "title": "OpenAI Executes Agreement with Dept of War for Classified Environment Deployment", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 781074336, "item_id": 48817146, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817146", "by": "Scroll_Swe", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mistral was amazing at first, Le Chat. Almost as good, generous free limits, good docs. Now? Just plain bad.", "excerpt": "Let me repost another comment of mine. TLDR: Yes, ofc we use Microsoft, Amazon (AWS), Cloudflare and Cisco... There is even mainstream press articles about it here in Sweden. \"dependance on microsoft ooh so bad\" etc. I find it laughable. Unless you have a time machine to 2005 (EC2 came out in 2006 that should have been the signal) there is no way to compete now. That train has left the platform. Second, Nokia and Eri", "context": "Based in Sweden", "use_case": "AI assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors"}, {"id": 780535360, "item_id": 48783460, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48783460", "by": "jnurmine", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mistral performs well for me and I see no reason to use something else.", "excerpt": "I use Claude with Kiro at work and at home Mistral stuff with pro subscription for coding and research. I don't see a fundamental difference between them in results, at least with what I use them for. The cost is lower too, but it is not the only reason why I won't use Claude at home. Vibe (the CLI Kiro-like tool) feels more \"Claude-ish\" as it has more terse answers, while the Le Chat can get quite chatty if you real", "context": "uses Claude with Kiro at work, Mistral at home", "use_case": "coding, research, genealogy", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leanstral 1.5"}, {"id": 772288608, "item_id": 48268038, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48268038", "by": "espadrine", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Le Chat as default search engine", "excerpt": "I use Le Chat as default search engine, using this search engine string: https://chat.mistral.ai/chat?q=Give%20a%20list%20of%20links%20to%20webpages%20that%20best%20solve%20this%20search%20engine%20query%2C%20ordered%20by%20relevance%3A%0A%0A%s%0A%0A-%20Search%20in%20the%20language%20of%20the%20query%0A-%20Your%20answer%20should%20only%20include%20the%20list%2C%20no%20intro%0A-%20Use%20an%20ordered%20list%2C%20with%2", "context": "", "use_case": "default search engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 771947296, "item_id": 48246706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48246706", "by": "phillc73", "date": "2026-05-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I was a Mistral Le Chat Pro subscriber (the \u20ac20/month plan). Yesterday I hit my monthly limit.", "excerpt": "I was a Mistral Le Chat Pro subscriber (the \u20ac20/month plan). Yesterday I hit my monthly limit. Switching to PAYG I burned through another \u20ac40 in one evening, working on the same project, with the same tasks. I upgraded my plan last night to Mistral Le Chat Teams. This now costs me \u20ac60 per month for two users. Limits have been reset, but I have no idea now if my per seat limit is higher than the Pro plan, or if the li", "context": "paying subscriber upgrading to Teams plan", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Drops Claude Code After Budget Overrun"}, {"id": 767202704, "item_id": 47950169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47950169", "by": "Tepix", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Mistral Le Chat quite a bit.", "excerpt": "I use Mistral Le Chat quite a bit. One thing in particular I was disappointed in was its bad explanations when asking about French grammar. It made multiple mistakes and the other models got it right, even Qwen 3.6 27b! Anyway, I'm hoping they catch up some more.", "context": "", "use_case": "general chat, French grammar", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mistral Medium 3.5"}, {"id": 755166577, "item_id": 47197911, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47197911", "by": "bodobolero", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I also considered https://mistral.ai/products/le-chat", "excerpt": "I canceled my ChatGPT subscription and switched to Lumo Plus subscription https://lumo.proton.me/about I also considered https://mistral.ai/products/le-chat Both are based in Europe but Proton Lumo has the better privacy promises. Would be interested in experiences of others with those alternatives for question/answering type research (not for coding for which there exist other, better alternatives like Gemini and Cl", "context": "", "use_case": "question/answer research", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI Executes Agreement with Dept of War for Classified Environment Deployment"}, {"id": 750439602, "item_id": 46902475, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46902475", "by": "heraldgeezer", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "When Claude runs out I switch to Mistral Le Chat", "excerpt": "I love Claude but use the free version so would love a Sonnet & Haiku update :) I mainly use Haiku to save on tokens... Also dont use CC but I use the chatbot site or app... Claude is just much better than GPT even in conversations. Straight to the point. No cringe emoji lists. When Claude runs out I switch to Mistral Le Chat, also just the site or app. Or duck.ai has Haiku 3.5 in Free version.", "context": "", "use_case": "fallback chatbot", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Opus 4.6"}]}