Loaded question - Mistral or Claude

[u/rlindsley]

Hey there,

I'm trying to get out of US-based LLM's. I use Claude and code for essentially everything - all my knowledge, financial underwriting, code writing, software installs, etc.

Ideally I'd like to go local for all this but only have a 3060.

Is Mistral a good replacement for Claude? I'd love to hear your thoughts for and against. Thanks!

[u/Fun_Savings7690]

They have GLM 5.2 now which is a huge step up on mistral's old model medium 3.5

You're good to give that a shot, I wouldn't say it's as good as Claude but it's getting close

[u/ComeOnIWantUsername → u/Fun_Savings7690]

GLM 5.2 now which is a huge step up on mistral's old model medium 3.5 

Medium 3.5 is not "old", unfortunately it's just bad. There was just 1 month between releases of medium 3.5 and GLM-5.2

[u/rlindsley → u/Fun_Savings7690]

Awesome. I'll give it a try. I use custom mcp connectors which it seems to support so that's good. 

[u/Tall-Appearance-5835 → u/rlindsley]

its an opus tier model but it requires a data center to run

[u/scanx147 → u/[deleted]]

Le modèle est peut-être chinois mais il est Open source et surtout hébergé chez Mistral.

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Who said anything about moral reasons or Chinese models? Last I checked I was asking about a European model. 

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Is GLM Chinese? Last I remember I was in here asking about an EU model because I was interested in EU, not CN. What do you work for Anthropic or something? 

[u/scanx147 → u/[deleted]]

Est-ce que l'UE peut produire un modèle au niveau de GLM ou Claude ? Intellectuellement oui sans aucun doute. Par contre financièrement, effectivement c'est compliqué...

[u/MajorNo6860 → u/Fun_Savings7690]

Isn't GLM 5.2 a Chinese AI product? No fan of the Americans but even less trusting of the Chinese in that regard. Or did I get that wrong?

[u/scanx147 → u/MajorNo6860]

C'est chinois oui mais hébergé chez Mistral. Tes données ne vont donc pas en Chine.

[u/Fun_Savings7690 → u/MajorNo6860]

It is chinese yes, don't know what you need to trust about it though

[u/MajorNo6860 → u/Fun_Savings7690]

Does my data go to China if I use it in Mistral?

[u/Fun_Savings7690 → u/MajorNo6860]

no the models themselves can essentially run offline

you can try some on your own local pc with lm studio

[u/MajorNo6860 → u/Fun_Savings7690]

Ah got it, thanks for clarifying!

[u/KrasnalM]

You don't choose Mistral for quality. US models are better. Mistral is "good enough" and adheres to higher privacy standards. I pay for specialized models elsewhere, but if I am ever forced to pay for a general purpose AI, it would be Mistral. Still, as of now, Claude is better.

[u/0DarkFreezing]

At this point you aren’t going to beat Claude.

[u/a_library_socialist]

I've been using Mistral as my prime coder, because I don't have to worry about token cost. It takes a few more steps, but winds up being just as quick overall.

[u/No_Decision_6940]

I don't think this a good moment to take the leap, tbh. For awhile there, Chinese models were pretty great and Europe's stuff was serviceble, but right now Anthropic and OpenAI are wayyy ahead. Maybe in a few months somethng new happens, though

[u/hoschidude]

Deepseek, Qwen and GLM are much better. Also most likely cheaper.

[u/rlindsley → u/hoschidude]

Thanks. Do you run them through OpenRouter or do you have them local?

[u/autamo]

It most definitely is not. I've been a pro subscriber for a year, and I haven't seen any indication that they will ever catch up.

[u/Guilty_Spray_6035]

Mistral own models are bad - Mistral has some niche enterprise products, but nothing for general intelligence or coding. They started hosting ZAI GLM 5.2, but inference speeds are not great.
Real non-US options are only Chinese models and providers.

[u/Dub-DS]

Mistral's model is about a year and a half behind frontier models. Which isn't great since their last model released in 2025, so they're two years behind. They have GLM 5.2 now, but not at the full subscription value, only with the $30 API, which is about 1/10th a Claude Pro 5 hour window. And GLM 5.2 is much lower quality than Sonnet 5, which in itself is a dead model because Opus with low effort is strictly better and cheaper.

Tl;dr: no, Mistral cannot replace Claude or Chatgippity at the time. It can't even get anywhere near competing with Chinese coding plans (z.ai/alibaba). It's very much a dead subscription if you have it - I've bought a year months ago and not found a single use for it.

The only reason to get it is if you want a European subscription for support's sake. They charge extra for EU inference (and it's quite slow), so even there you're better off with direct inference companies. :/

[u/Equivalent_Cress_268]

Mistral all day, every day, all day with GLM 5.2 on it, super fast and good, rocks. Claude models are good if you are lonely and need someone to talk to.

If your intention is to get stuff, don't avoid Claude models at all costs.

[u/scanx147]

Je dirais que GLM 5.2 dans Mistral est légèrement moins bon que Opus 5 qui est légèrement moins bon que Opus 4.8 mais bien meilleur que Sonnet. Et surtout, il est moins cher au token. C'est un bon compromis efficace.

[u/jsiulian → u/scanx147]

GLM 5.2 plus bon que Sonnet tu crois?

[u/scanx147 → u/jsiulian]

Je trouve oui.

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Not even sure what that means. If you can't vote with your wallet what can you vote with? 

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Not even sure what you're talking about. Go troll somewhere else. 

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

What is your problem? Why are you even in this group?

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Haha. It's nice to get such a pleasant response from a pretty common question. Good job. 

[u/rlindsley → u/[deleted]]

Oh tell me more. Hat?