DeepSeek vs Mistral AI
Two model provider options for LLM API. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗
Which fits you
Choose DeepSeek if- Token cost dominates your budget, for example high-volume batch or agent workloads
Use it whenToken cost dominates your budget, for example high-volume batch or agent workloads.
Trade-offServed from China, which matters for some customers' data requirements; peak-hour prices are double off-peak.
Choose Mistral AI if- Token cost dominates your budget, for example high-volume batch or agent workloads
Use it whenYou want an EU-based provider, or document OCR alongside text models.
Trade-offA smaller ecosystem of third-party integrations than the largest providers.
At a glance
| DeepSeek | Mistral AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Used by | 11 makers' products · 24 open-source projects | 15 makers' products · 69 open-source projects |
| Cost at default usageinput tokens 50 million tokens, output tokens 10 million tokens | $27/mo deepseek-flash | $6.00/mo Ministral 3 (3B) |
| Downloads | 1.9M/wk4.9× vs npm | 7.1M/wk6× vs npm |
| Pricing | Pay per token from a prepaid balance; off-peak hours are half price. · paid from Pay per token | Pay per token; the free plan includes $10/mo in API credits to test models in Mistral Studio. · paid from Pay per token |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
Cost as you grow
At 1M tokens Mistral AI costs less ($0.12 vs $0.54); and still does at 5B tokens ($600 vs $2,700).
The numbers, plan by plan
| Input tokens per month | DeepSeek | Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0.54 deepseek-flash | $0.12 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 5 | $2.70 deepseek-flash | $0.60 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 10 | $5.40 deepseek-flash | $1.20 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 50 | $27 deepseek-flash | $6.00 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 100 | $54 deepseek-flash | $12 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 500 | $270 deepseek-flash | $60 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 1,000 | $540 deepseek-flash | $120 Ministral 3 (3B) |
| 5,000 | $2,700 deepseek-flash | $600 Ministral 3 (3B) |
From each vendor's pricing page: DeepSeek, Mistral AI.
What makers say
Makers on using it for LLM API, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.
On DeepSeekDeepSeek delivers serious reasoning at a fraction of the cost of comparable models. We chose it because powerful AI shouldn't have a premium price tag attached to every use case.
DeepSeek Chat serves as our reliable foundation for basic content creation tasks. Its efficient performance and consistent output quality make it perfect for handling straightforward development requests.
DeepSeek gives us frontier-level reasoning at a fraction of the cost, which means we can run AI features at scale without watching the meter. Perfect for the high-volume inference paths where every token counts.
On Mistral AITalespinner uses Mistral Large as a writing model. It is great for writing novels with more mature topics, since it doesn't censor your writing that much.
We use Mistral as an endpoint in our team builder flow; you can combine this model with all available models.
Mistral helped us create a few different AI agents using their console is pretty smooth
Loved and watch-outs
Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.
DeepSeekMost loved
Watch-outs
On Product Hunt: 4.9★, 53 reviews · mentioned most: deep thinking ability, supports coding tasks, handles complex tasks · complaints: slow performance, not as good as ChatGPTMistral AIMost loved
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 41 reviews · mentioned most: open source models, open technology commitment, performance and scalabilityWho uses each
DeepSeek11 makers' products
Genstore.ai
IFTTT
MGX (Now Atoms)
Read & Give by Bono
Shipable AI by CNTXT AI
Weavable
Webhound
Blink.new
Chat Data
Browser Use
Internet.io
MeetMinutes
Officely AI
TalespinnerUsed by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product
What makers pair each with
With DeepSeekWith Mistral AIHosting
Mistral AI + Amazon Web Services:
Gro
Blacksmith
Crowdin
Lago
GroBlacksmithCrowdinLagoMistral AI + Cloudflare:Gro
ReferentBlacksmithCrowdin
GroReferentBlacksmithCrowdinMistral AI + Google Cloud Platform:ReferentCrowdin
ReferentCrowdinFrontend Framework
Mistral AI + Next.js:
Omnifact
RankfenderGroBlacksmithLago
OmnifactRankfenderGroBlacksmithLagoMistral AI + React:Rankfender
RankfenderDatabase
Mistral AI + Supabase:
Kuration AI
PodpodRankfender
Kuration AIPodpodRankfenderMistral AI + ClickHouse:BlacksmithLago
BlacksmithLagoMistral AI + MongoDB:Kuration AIGro
Kuration AIGroNeither quite right?
See the whole LLM API decision →
OpenAI APIModel providerThe broadest model lineup — text, images, speech, embeddings — and the largest ecosystem.vs DeepSeek →vs Mistral AI →
Claude
Gemini APIModel providerVery long context and multimodal input, with a free tier to start.vs DeepSeek →vs Mistral AI →
GroqOpen models, hostedVery low-latency inference on open models, for real-time features.
OpenRouterGateway (many providers, one API)Trying many models from many providers with one API key and one bill, without opening an account at each.
LiteLLMGateway (many providers, one API)Running your own OpenAI-compatible proxy in front of your own provider keys, with retries, routing and per-key budgets.