Mistral Large 2: Europe's Answer to GPT-4 and Claude
French AI lab Mistral released Large 2 with 123B parameters, competitive performance, and a focus on European data sovereignty and open research.
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Max Beech
Head of Content
TL;DR
- Mistral Large 2 (123B parameters) competes with GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet.
- Designed for EU data residency and GDPR compliance.
- Free research access to model weights (non-commercial license).
- API pricing: €3/€9 per million tokens.
Mistral Large 2: Europe's Answer to GPT-4 and Claude
Mistral AI, the French AI lab, released Mistral Large 2 in July 2024, positioning it as Europe's competitive alternative to US-based frontier models. With 123B parameters and performance approaching GPT-4o, Large 2 emphasizes data sovereignty, multilingual capabilities, and transparent research -priorities aligned with European regulatory frameworks.
For EU-based companies navigating GDPR and AI Act compliance, Mistral offers a domestic alternative to reliance on US cloud providers. Here's what matters.
Performance
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 2 | GPT-4o | Claude Sonnet 3.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU | 84.0% | 88.7% | 88.3% |
| Math | 76.9% | 76.6% | 78.3% |
| Coding (HumanEval) | 92.0% | 90.2% | 92.0% |
| Multilingual | 89.2% | 82.7% | 81.4% |
Strong on coding and multilingual tasks; slightly behind on general knowledge.
Data sovereignty
EU hosting: All Mistral Cloud infrastructure hosted within EU borders (Paris, Frankfurt)
GDPR compliance: Built-in data processing agreements, no data retention for API calls
AI Act ready: Designed to meet forthcoming EU AI Act requirements
Use case: European healthcare, finance, government agencies requiring data localization
Pricing
| Model | Input (€/M tokens) | Output (€/M tokens) |
|---|---|---|
| Mistral Large 2 | €3.00 | €9.00 |
| Mistral 8x22B | €2.00 | €6.00 |
| Mistral 7B | €0.25 | €0.25 |
Comparison to US models:
- GPT-4o: $2.50/$10.00 (similar)
- Claude Sonnet: $3.00/$15.00 (Mistral 40% cheaper)
Open research approach
Unlike OpenAI/Anthropic, Mistral releases research-accessible weights:
Available models:
- Mistral 7B (fully open)
- Mixtral 8x7B & 8x22B (open weights)
- Mistral Large (research license)
License: Free for research; commercial use requires API subscription
Impact: European researchers can study, audit, and extend models -transparency unavailable with US alternatives.
When to choose Mistral
Choose Mistral Large 2 if:
- EU data residency required
- GDPR/AI Act compliance critical
- Multi-language support needed (especially European languages)
- Prefer European vendors for geopolitical reasons
Choose US alternatives if:
- Need absolute best performance (GPT-4o/Claude edge ahead)
- Global infrastructure required
- Ecosystem integrations matter (OpenAI has broader tooling)
Call-to-action (Consideration stage) Test Mistral Large 2 via La Plateforme with €10 free credits.
FAQs
Can non-EU companies use Mistral?
Yes, API available globally. EU hosting benefits European customers but anyone can access.
How does multilingual performance compare?
Mistral excels at French, German, Spanish, Italian -better than GPT-4o for European languages.
Is the model truly "open"?
Partial. Smaller models (7B, Mixtral) fully open. Large 2 weights available for research, not commercial use without license.
What about customer support?
EU-based support teams, business hours aligned with European timezones -advantage for EU customers.
Summary
Mistral Large 2 offers competitive performance with EU data sovereignty, making it attractive for European enterprises navigating GDPR and AI Act compliance. While slightly behind GPT-4o/Claude on benchmarks, it leads on multilingual tasks and provides transparency via research access.
Internal links:
External references:
- Mistral AI Blog – launch announcement
- La Plateforme – API access
Crosslinks: