Quick Review: Mistral AI's Le Chat for marketing copywriters

Reddit has lamented that Claude now defaults you to Haiku, the smallest model, for answers most of the time if you're on the free plan (like I am). Previously, it would mostly throw you to Sonnet, the second most capable model, but now it's Haiku by default (which is fine for my use case).

In the same comments, someone suggested using Mistral AI as a replacement, and I realised it had a chatbot function, and so that's today's review. Here's quick links to the relevant sections if you want to jump ahead.

What is Mistral AI?
How does it work?
Sample generated prompt
Is it for Marketing Copywriters?
Conclusion aka TL;DR

What is Mistral AI?

Mistral AI was founded by former employees of Meta (aka FB) and Google DeepMind, the precursor to Gemini. They aim to "democratise" AI by focusing on open-source models rather than proprietary models.

You can access it either through API (Le Plateforme) or via chatbot (Le Chat). For purposes of this review, and because I am both not a programmer and have no interest in programming, we are going to focus on just Le Chat.

And if you're wondering, yes, Mistral AI is based in France, hence the naming convention. This does mean they are also subject to EU rules rather than US, which means their terms and conditions are actually easier to read and understand.

How does it work?

As we're using Le Chat, all you need to do is just to sign up for an account . Once that's done, you'll be greeted with a blank screen that resembles a notepad I've seen programmers use.

Then, you can start prompting it like most other chatbots. It says a lot about the evolution of GenAI chatbots in the last 6 months alone that working with Le Chat did not annoy or irritate me compared to the others.

One helpful feature is that if you click on your username in the bottom left, you'll see your workspace settings. If you're like me and prefer dark mode everything in your browser, click on "Toggle theme" to switch from light mode. Your eyes will thank you.

Sample generated prompt

As usual, I use the same prompt I started this blog with. Personally I think asking the GenAI to assume a role is a waste of time and doesn't add much to whatever writing you are doing. At the end of the day, you, the Marketing Copywriter, are the expert, not the GenAI, and if you're going to ask it to write something as an expert only to edit it, you might as well save yourself the initial keystrokes and focus on getting the fundamentals right instead.

The prompt was:

Write me a brief review about using mistral ai for marketing copywriters. It should follow the following format, with a focus on how marketing copywriters in the B2C and B2B space can use Mistral AI Chat to speed up workflows. Use a positive, conciliatory tone.

• Name of AI
• Model last updated until when
• Pricing tiers available
• Best used for what types of marketing collateral  
• Who might best utilize it

What's interesting is that Mistral identified the format as bullet points, and formatted it as such. 

Here's what it answered: 

Mistral AI

Model last updated until when: 3 December 2024

Pricing tiers available: Mistral AI offers flexible pricing tiers to accommodate various needs. The Free Tier is available at $0/month, the Basic Tier at $29/month (or $290/year if billed annually), the Professional Tier at $99/month (or $990/year if billed annually), and the Enterprise Tier features custom pricing based on specific needs and usage.

Best used for what types of marketing collateral: Mistral AI is ideal for creating email campaigns, social media posts, blog articles, product descriptions and advertising copy. Its advanced language capabilities ensure engaging and tailored content for specific audiences and platforms.

Who might best utilise it: Marketing copywriters in both B2C and B2B spaces will find Mistral AI invaluable. B2C copywriters can craft compelling consumer-friendly content, whilst B2B copywriters can produce professional, informative content that addresses business clients' unique needs.

Product Offerings:

Mistral AI Le Chat is an AI-powered chat assistant for generating text, answering questions and providing information conversationally. It is best for quick drafts, ideas and immediate customer queries.

Mistral AI Le Plateforme is a comprehensive solution for advanced content creation and management. It offers tools for long-form content, customisation, integration with marketing tools and team collaboration. It is suited for marketing agencies and larger teams needing robust content management.

Mistral AI speeds up workflows by automating initial drafting, allowing copywriters to focus on refining content. Its intuitive interface and powerful algorithms make it a seamless addition to any marketing team's toolkit, ensuring high-quality, on-brand content is delivered efficiently. Whether you are a solo copywriter or part of a larger marketing agency, Mistral AI provides the support needed to elevate your content creation process.

This is actually pretty good. I did have to prompt it to include the actual pricing (the initial result did not include hard numbers but an actual usable overview with what you can expect from different price tiers).

Unlike most other GenAIs, Mistral AI was also trained on itself, and answered my question asking what was the difference between Le Chat and Le Plateforme quite well - it remembered the target audience (marketing copywriters) and drafted the answer to include both function and use cases of the two.

Should you bother with Mistral AI?

If you are planning to stay on the Free tier, as I am, then the answer is a resounding NO. This is because in their Additional Terms and Conditions for Le Chat, they straight up declare that your user data is used to train and improve their Models and Services.

Yes, User Data in this case does include your Feedback, Input and Output, as listed in the Definitions of their Terms of Use.

Unlike both ChatGPT (which allows users to opt out, as per this Help article) and Claude (which requires you to opt-in to train their models), Le Chat doesn't seem to allow you to opt out of training if you are on the Free tier (or at least, the option was missing in my Settings page, and I clicked on a lot of different items to see if I could find it).

Mistral AI does say that if you are on Paid Services then your data won't be used in the training of the various models. However, if you're dealing with any form of sensitive documents (and let's face it, as Marketing Copywriters, we hold a lot of confidential information at our fingertips) I really don't think you can use Mistral AI for your work in any capacity.

Which is a real shame, because it generates outputs that are much better for most marketing use cases compared to both ChatGPT and Gemini.

I also almost forgot, but compared to other GenAI, Mistral does take some time to load the answers. It takes a few seconds to half a minute sometimes to load all the text. This was not an issue for me, but I know some might not like that.

Conclusion aka TL;DR

If you're planning to go paid, then by all means, you can probably Mistral AI, but if you were considering going paid for Mistral in the first place because you were seeking a free alternative to Claude, then it really makes no sense.

Claude is $20 for a monthly subscription, while Le Chat starts at $29. At those rates, you may as well pay for Claude.

And as your data will be used as training for Mistral AI if you're on the Free tier, then I really cannot recommend using Le Chat for any client work. Personal work on the other hand, is fine, as long as you're ok with that.
Have you used Mistral AI as a marketing copywriter, or just in any non-programming roles? Do you agree with what I've said, or do you have a different take? Let me know in the comments!