C
CGeneral-purpose AI chat assistant for writing, research, coding and everyday tasks
Free, from $8/mo
DeepSeek vs Mistral
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
D
Choose DeepSeek if…
- you're in its core audience: developers, ai app builders
M
Choose Mistral if…
- you want a free plan to start with
- you want open source you can self-host or audit
- you work on VS Code, JetBrains, Self-hosted
- you're in its core audience: developers, enterprises with data-control requirements
Side by side
Feature DeepSeek Mistral
Pricing modelPaidFreemium
Starting price—$14.99/mo
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your content—Yes, unless you opt out
Data retention—Vibe input/output kept until you delete conversation or account
GitHub stars263.8K—
Web search—
File upload & analysis—
Image generation—
Voice conversations—
Memory—
Custom assistants—
App connectors / MCP—
Runs locally—
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, APIWeb, iOS, Android, API, VS Code, JetBrains, Self-hosted
CategoryAI ChatbotsLocal & Open Models
CompanyDeepSeekMistral AI
Based in—France
Founded—2023
Part of——
Key features
D DeepSeek
- Web chat at chat.deepseek.com
- Mobile app and DeepSeek Harness desktop client
- OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API
- 1M-token context window, 384K max output
- Thinking mode with adjustable reasoning effort
- Web search and page fetch through the API
- Discounted pricing for cache hits and off-peak hours
M Mistral
- Open-weight models that can be self-hosted
- Model customization on your own data with Forge
- Terminal coding agent powered by Devstral
- VS Code and JetBrains plugin with tab completion
- Remote coding agents in isolated sandboxes
- Custom MCP connectors and 100+ app connectors
- Spreadsheet, slide and image generation in chat
- Scheduled prompts, agents and workflows
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
DeepSeek
deepseek-flash API$0.15/1M input tokens (cache miss, off-peak), $0.6/1M output tokens off-peak; peak rates are double
deepseek-v4-pro API$0.66/1M input tokens (cache miss, off-peak), $1.98/1M output tokens off-peak; peak rates are double
Search & Fetch$0.75 per 1,000 successful requests
Mistral
FreeFree
Pro$14.99/mo excluding taxes
Team$24.99/user/mo excluding taxes
EnterpriseCustom
Strengths and limitations
DeepSeek
- Off-peak API prices are 50% of peak prices
- 1M-token context on both API models
- Works with OpenAI and Anthropic API formats
- Available on web, mobile, and desktop
- Peak-hour API rates are twice the off-peak rates
- Web search and fetch through the API cost extra per request
- The site does not state free-tier terms or limits for the chat apps
Mistral
- Free plan includes chat, coding sessions and image generation
- Models can be self-hosted, on-prem or in your VPC
- Students can get Pro for $5.99/mo
- Pro includes $15/mo in API credits
- Commercial self-hosting requires a separate Mistral license
- Paid plans are subject to fair usage limits
- Enterprise pricing is available only through sales
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy