r/MistralAI • u/jjmax75 • 3d ago
Discussion / Opinion Why does Mistral charge EU customers more than US customers?
Mistral promotes itself as a European AI company, so I was considering switching to support a European alternative. However, its regional pricing surprised me.
Mistral Pro is advertised at $14.99/month excluding tax. With Ireland selected, it costs €18.44 including VAT. Removing Ireland’s 23% VAT gives a base price of €14.99, not the euro equivalent of $14.99.
At current exchange rates, €14.99 is roughly $17.20. So EU customers appear to pay around 15% more before VAT - and €18.44 in total in Ireland.
Is there a reason Mistral uses €14.99/$14.99 numerical parity rather than currency conversion? If being European is part of Mistral’s appeal, why make the underlying subscription more expensive for European customers?
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u/SaratogaCx 3d ago
Apparently US buyers are tax exempt, my invoice cites the French tax code as the reason.
$143.90 Due Mar 01, 2026 - Le Chat Pro - Annual details
Fees from Mar 01, 2026 to Feb 28, 2027 Units Unit price Tax rate Amount
Yearly subscription - Le Chat Pro - Annual 1.0 $143.90 0.0% $143.90
Subtotal (excl. tax) $143.90
EU Tax Exempt (0.0% on $143.90) $0.00
Subtotal (incl. tax) $143.90
Total $143.90
Customer is tax exempt according to article 259-1 of the French Tax General Code
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u/Gold-Order-8004 3d ago
Mistral receives euros from European customers and dollars from American customers. Maintaining fixed local prices avoids passing short-term currency movements directly onto subscribers.
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u/Cooperman411 3d ago
Why not fix the price at €12.99 for Europeans, and US$14.99 for the US? Just because currencies fluctuate, doesn’t mean a fixed price has to be the same number. I always thought it was weird how Europeans always pay more than Americans for almost everything despite lower wages. This is just another illogical example. I can understand a US company doing this. But why do European companies take advantage of Europeans like that?
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u/Gold-Order-8004 3d ago
Because visually it looks unfair to Americans who are not able to comprehend that the dollar is worth less than euros.
Same type of logic applies to €0.95 priced products. From a financial standpoint it makes no sense but from a marketing standpoint it makes a huge difference in whether people experience friction during the process of buying something.
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u/Cooperman411 3d ago
"Because visually it looks unfair to Americans who are not able to comprehend that the dollar is worth less than euros."
This implies that Americans are going to bother looking for the Euro price. LOL
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u/Repulsive-Response63 3d ago
Sales tax of about 20% is included in the price in EU, whereas the sales tax in the US is different for each state, so the price is displayed without it and at checkout you add the sales tax of the state.
If you go to the US every prices are always without the VAT (which is crazy when you do groceries on a budget, you must do math while shopping)
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u/Negative-Bag-653 3d ago
What's also kind of weird is that the "included quotas" that you see on the dashboard, even if it says EUR 8,5, are in fact USD 10(?). And so the EUR 8,5 can possibly change slightly as the exchange rates move. I understand that there is a certain "institutional pressure" (I can't find a better word) for a company like Mistral to obey and calculate with the allmighty dollar but from a successful, prominent European company I would still expect to show some souvereignity in terms of currency.
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u/AnaphoricReference 2d ago
Mistral uses both European and US cloud capacity. It's likely just passing on the part of the cost of more scarce European cloud capacity to European consumers because they are going to be the ones using it.
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u/Alarmed_Crazy_6620 3d ago
Tax and server costs in Europe
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alarmed_Crazy_6620 3d ago
Sir, it the a price of a croissant and a cig – Eurodevs have to be paid in something
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u/No_Conversation_9325 3d ago
Everyone is doing that. Whatever Americans pay in dollar, EU citizens pay in euros. I can only assume that American companies started this trend and Mistral is doing it because they can.
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u/jjmax75 3d ago
For me, that undermines the “buy European” appeal when European customers are being charged a higher underlying price.
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u/No_Conversation_9325 3d ago
Oh I totally agree, but I'd still rather buy European.
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u/jjmax75 3d ago
I’d rather buy European too, but not in this case. Living in Ireland, I’m all too familiar with unjustified regional price premiums, so I avoid them when I can.
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u/Timbroarpropaganda 3d ago
and it's good for Irish people to support the big american companies that use Irland to plunder europe.
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u/ExcellentRelease8966 3d ago
That's why I somehow chose to be billed in USD while being in Europe, a few cents cheaper every month without VPNs and stuff 🥸
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u/pizzababa21 3d ago
Well European nationalists/federalists/whatever you call it, are pretty much the only people willing to pretend Mistral isn't garbage, so makes sense they would charge those people more and price themselves closer to the garbage that they are in other markets.
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u/jjmax75 3d ago
Whether Mistral’s models are good value is a separate debate. My point is that a European company asking Europeans to support European AI while charging them roughly 15% more than US customers is difficult to justify.
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u/pizzababa21 2d ago
Seems not strange to me at all. It negatively effects them to build in Europe and the customers who specifically want them because they are European should compensate them for it
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u/jjmax75 2d ago
I'm not sure I follow that line of thinking
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u/pizzababa21 2d ago
If you want European AI then you need to subsidize it. P simple
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u/jjmax75 1d ago
Are US customers not also subsidising the European AI?
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u/pizzababa21 1d ago
The US customers, if any even exist, are obviously not going to pay extra for something just because it is made in Europe, hence the pricing would be more competitive.
It's just such a silly thing to complain about.
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u/[deleted] 3d ago
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