r/MistralAI • u/New_Pay_6922 • 1d ago
Other Changing Claude Max (Opus 5.5 Medium) to Mistral CLI (3.5 Large Medium) for a week - AMA.
I am a free lance developer doing all sorts of work, from complex automation tools to my own SaaS-business. I recently bought Claude Max (99 USD) and I mean, it is great tbh, but also it is American. I really vouch for the use of European options (Using UpCloud for hosting my projects, Sweego for email etc) and I thought let's give Mistral a run. Just signed up for Mistral Pro and will use it for one of my projects this week. Will evaluate corrections needed as that is my main weak-spot, ie the amount of times I have to ask it to redo things because of low quality output. Let me know if you are also evaluating, or if you want some insights. Happy coding!
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u/kpetrovsky 1d ago
What's the point of testing 3.5, if Le Chonk is much better?
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u/New_Pay_6922 1d ago
I basically just installed it, have not even checked out the config yet, might be that I would come back tomorrow or Tuesday with an update, but a very fair point, added it to my todo for tomorrow! 🍻
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u/crud_despair 14h ago
bro do not use medium 3.5
it is braindead compared to opus 5.5
it is almost 2 times more expensive than mistral large 4 or glm 5.3
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u/User_Comment_Critic 1d ago
Le Chonk is good for code too, I've been thrashing it over the weekend and it's holding up well.
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u/Front_Eagle739 1d ago
Its not a silly meme model aside from the name. Its better than 3.5 in every way or it should be at least
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u/Dingosavedyourbaby 1d ago
It is, not to mention GLM 5.3 is one of the best models available, in general. And it’s right there!
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u/isidor_n Mistral Employee 23h ago
Make sure to use the Pro plan - then you should have access to GLM-5.3 and ML4 (rolling out this week)
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u/lorenzo_aegroto 1d ago
Use Mistral Large 4 if you want to have and give a real feedback, the 3.5 model is too outdated.
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u/New_Pay_6922 22h ago
Looking at swapping models early this week 😃
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u/New_Pay_6922 12h ago
Day 1: Half day was spent using GLM 5.3, half was using Le Chonk.
It felt like GLM pushed through more tokens and did a few more (self corrected, by all means) mistakes that Large4 did not. For example some tables and columns were dropped and later restored when self-reasoning using GLM. It felt like that reduced during the afternoon, even though data models were created (including pretty intricate relations) both AM and PM. All tests were well written, I did not have to make any major corrections, but I am a bit nervous about the 255EUR limit. It feels like the freedom you get using Claude Max (99USD) makes you think less about what to ask for and just prompt more. How are you managing this in your day to day? I am not spinning up 2435654532 agents to do all my work, I work human in the loop to say what we are doing next, what needs to be done, what stories to pull from Jira etc.
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u/PersonalBarracuda581 11h ago
Yea API usage vous montre le vrai coût de vos (parfois) mauvaises habitudes. Il vous pousse à améliorer vos prompts et, dans l'ensemble, vos méthodes de travail.
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u/New_Pay_6922 10h ago
Oui, mais je ne sais pas ce que je peux faire pour réduire mes coûts, tout en maintenant une productivité élevée.
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u/PersonalBarracuda581 1h ago
Smaller chats, better prompts. Prompt caching optimization. Subagent use can help .
For sure subscription is the way to go if you don't want to bother with your consumption...
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u/fredriknicol 1d ago
Why Large 3.5 instead of 4?
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u/New_Pay_6922 1d ago
Fair, as described above - really JUST installed the CLI so will most likely find those model changes etc in the config as I move along and update the thread accordingly 🍻
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u/khaled57 1d ago
I’d compare how long each tool takes to produce usable code, rather than just counting corrections. Give both the same tasks and record the time spent reviewing and fixing their output, along with the cost. Check the exact model each tool uses so the comparison is fair. Your preference for European services makes sense; this trial should help you judge whether the results meet your needs.
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u/New_Pay_6922 12h ago
Yeah, that's a good scientific approach to it. I am not going to be THAT nitty about it, but there is definitely some differences in experiences between Claude and Mistral. Changed to Le Chonk now and that feels slightly more light on its feet than GLM 5.3, and less pricey. (I never was on 3.5)
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u/goblynwtf 1d ago
Do you have particular configuration for it? Like set of skills, etc.
Also, what size of a project you are testing it on?
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u/New_Pay_6922 21h ago
Not yet actually. It is a SaaS-product built in Ruby on Rails, 9040 files in the dir as of current count. It is a booking and administration platform so not overly complex but quite a few date and scheduling caveats to manage throughout the system. Some integration to external services (both in and out) 😃
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u/whoisyurii 20h ago
Use Le Chonk or GML-5.3
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u/New_Pay_6922 12h ago
Hear hear, started on GLM, now I am on Le Chonk.
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u/whoisyurii 12h ago
how do you find it? For me it is not the same level as GPT Astra, but good enough and - heck yeah - I am all in for EU product.
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u/New_Pay_6922 12h ago
So far I think it is really good to be honest! I made a comment on the original post with some reflections after day 1. Only thing I might want to have is a client like Claude has, might actually put something together and put on GH as CLI feels a bit sluggish after a 2h session...
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u/grise_rosee 21h ago
You want to compare current Claude models with old Mistral models that was already one year behind Antrophic models when they were published? That's like comparing non-agentic models from early 2025 with current ones.
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u/New_Pay_6922 12h ago
I was on default GLM 5.3, not Medium (I misread the config file). Now I have changed to Le Chonk, trialling that. So far I must say that for the complexity I am on, it performs really well.
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u/Ammoun442 1d ago
its better to use european stuff if u are from there but u are slowing yourself down imo i dont think you'll get anything back from it not like mistral will honor u or something its a buisness after all and money is all it wants .
dont downvote me european guys plz
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u/New_Pay_6922 1d ago
You’re right in a way, but my angle is not the direct money question, it is about the placement of power. If all AI giants reside in the US, we in Europe will be incredibly vulnerable. We also suffer from a “green house escapism” where we grow really good initiatives using EU money, initiatives that we later loose to the US because there they can continue to grow due to huge capital. Hence we need to shift our support to EU based companies to allow them to be a real contender towards US backed companies. We need to be able to harvest the seeds we help grow.
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u/Ammoun442 1d ago
Fair , but id rather help where they're good enough to compete rather than just because they're European . I respect your choice tho anyways have a good day
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u/Sweaty-Special-1710 1d ago edited 18h ago
Honestly, Medium is quite old now, and very disapointing, don't use it to compare it with Opus which is one of the best. Like comparing a F1 and a dead horse. Use GLM 5.3 hosted by Mistral, it's quite usable, and Mistral Large 4 is in preview (still unfinished), and sounds promising.