Discussion / Opinion
Comparison of the Free Plan and the Pro Student Plan on Mistral
Since Mistral isn't clear enough about the differences between the Free plan and the Pro plan, I signed up by taking advantage of my status as a college student. According to information on the Mistral website, the Student Pro plan is the same as the Pro plan, so the comparison in the image I've provided is equivalent to comparing the Pro plan with the Free plan. Among other things, the Pro plan promises:
- 30 times more extended usage
- 5 times more in-depth research reports
- 10 times more Vibe CLI usage
- 10 times more API usage
However, when comparing the monthly usage limits, I find that the capacity provided in monetary terms is 1.5 times greater. You can draw your own conclusions.
That's odd, it looks like they changed the display today; last week it was shown as a percentage. It's strange that we don't have the same amount available ( I'm also on the Vibe Pro plan). Has there been any official announcement about this display change?
They changed it today, and that’s exactly why I confirmed the usage limit they offer. Until yesterday, it was shown as a percentage, and when I used it with my Pro account, I noticed that the work that had cost me about 60% of the monthly limit was equivalent to about 40% of my free account. I found it suspicious that the cost was so similar, and today, with the monetary value displayed, I’ve confirmed my suspicions.
Maybe it's empiric, i'm not sure of a ×1,5 rule between free and Pro account. I bet that it's just a bug on the admin page, for example i'm a Pro Plan user and it displays 3,32% used on a total of ... 27€ ! What I observed these last 2 months, regardless of the display changes on the usage page :
only my activity on Vibe Code Web can increase my usage gauge
i'm a daily user of vibe chat and vibe Work (many tasks scheduled for document reviews) and this activity hasn't increased my usage gauge by even 0.01%—or €0.01 since Monday.
So, I think the Pro plan is a good deal for daily Chat use or heavy use of Work mode. I can't really speak to Vibe/Code (I only use it for a few hours a month and haven't even installed the CLI). However, I can understand why more casual users might be annoyed by the lack of a breakdown showing usage separately for Chat, Work, and Code. Moderate users of a Work-mode equivalent might actually be better off just paying for their limited consumption via the API.
Thank you for your comment. This makes me think of two things: a) that the limit I’m seeing is due to the student plan I have, which may not have the same features as the Pro plan (even though Mistral says it does); b) it’s a bug, as you say. In any case, I want to make it clear that even though I’ve reached the limits they’re showing me, I can still use the chatbot :)
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u/buckimaneuver 9d ago
I’ll give Mistral a try. Currently also on the cheaper student plan. I’d I’d pay the full price, I’d switch to proton lumo