Create a Mistral Account

Updated November 2, 2026 — Le Chat becomes Vibe. As of May 28, 2026, Le Chat is now Vibe (still at chat.mistral.ai): a single agent for work and code, with your conversations, settings, and subscriptions carrying over. The legacy Le Chat experience remains accessible in Chat mode; in Work mode, agents have become skills (invoked with @), memories are now the knowledge base, and deep search is the Deep Research skill. Plans are now called Mistral Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise. This lesson now uses the name Vibe; some menus described here may have changed names or locations.

Your First Step into the Mistral Ecosystem

To use Mistral AI services—whether Vibe, the API, or the Console—you need to create an account. Rest assured: the process is quick and requires no credit card for the free plan. You can follow this lesson live, with the screen open alongside your reading, without spending a cent. We’ll create the account step by step, then take a guided tour of the Console so you know where everything is.

Signing Up at console.mistral.ai

Go to console.mistral.ai in your browser. You’ll land on the Mistral AI login page, which offers several sign-up methods. The classic option is email + password: preferably use your work address and choose a strong password. If you prefer one-click login, three identity providers are accepted: Google, practical for most individuals; GitHub, ideal if you’re a developer and want to link your technical account; and Microsoft, the natural choice if you operate in a Microsoft professional environment. Whichever option you choose, the process takes less than a minute.

If you opted for email sign-up, a verification email awaits you in your inbox: click the link to activate the account. If it doesn’t appear after a few minutes, check your spam folder—this is the number one cause of “stuck” sign-ups.

Once logged in, you’ll be invited to complete some profile information: your first and last name, your organization (optional), and your primary use case—development, research, business… This information helps Mistral personalize your experience but commits you to nothing; you can answer in ten seconds and move on.

Tour of the Console

You’re now in the Mistral Console. Let’s take the time to visit the main sections, since you’ll return to them regularly.

The dashboard is your home page. You’ll see a summary of your activity—number of API requests, token consumption—and quick access to main features. At first, it will be empty: this is normal, you haven’t consumed anything yet.

The API Keys section lets you create and manage your Mistral API access keys. Each key is a unique identifier that authenticates your requests: it is literally the key to your account, and anyone who has it can consume—and bill—in your name. This is why a few hygiene rules apply from day one:

• Never share an API key publicly (not on GitHub, not in an email)
• Create separate keys for each project or application
• Revoke a key immediately if you suspect it has been compromised
• Store your keys in environment variables, never hard-coded in the code

Separating keys by project isn’t overkill: if one leaks, you revoke only that one, and your other applications continue to function.

Workspaces let you organize your projects. If you work in a team, each workspace can have its own API keys, its own consumption limits, and its own members—a marketing team and a technical team can thus coexist on the same account without stepping on each other’s toes.

The Billing section displays your current plan (Experiment or Scale), your current consumption, and your past invoices. This is where you’ll switch from the free plan to a paid plan the day your needs justify it—and not before.

Finally, the admin portal, accessible via admin.mistral.ai, offers additional features for organizations: member management, access policies, and security settings. If you are alone, you won’t have immediate use for it, but know that it exists.

Create Your First API Key

Even if you plan to use only Vibe for now, create an API key right now: this will get you familiar with the interface, and the key will be ready the day you need it. The procedure takes four steps:

1. In the Console, click API Keys in the side menu
2. Click Create new key
3. Give your key a descriptive name (for example, “test-course”)
4. Copy the generated key and keep it in a safe place

Watch out for the detail that traps everyone the first time: the key is displayed only once. If you lose it, there is no way to recover it—you will simply have to create a new one, which is nothing serious but wastes time.

Accessing Vibe

Alongside the Console, you can open Vibe at chat.mistral.ai right now. If you are already logged in to the Console, you will be automatically authenticated: a single account gives access to both universes. Vibe is the simplest interface to start interacting with Mistral models, and this is precisely the subject of the next lessons.

Key Takeaways

• Signing up at console.mistral.ai is free and takes less than a minute
• You can sign up with email, Google, GitHub, or Microsoft
• The Console gives access to API keys, workspaces, and billing management
• Create your API keys now and keep them secure—each key is displayed only once
• Vibe (chat.mistral.ai) is accessible with the same account