Le Chat vs ChatGPT: Le Chat is now called Vibe, $14.99 a month to Plus at $20, and its best model ties ChatGPT's free one

Which is better, Le Chat or ChatGPT?

Mistral's best model, Mistral Large 4 Preview, scored 38 when we read Artificial Analysis on 12 October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol at its max setting scored 52. Artificial Analysis runs each model through the same ten tests and works out what one task costs at list price. And the Sol run was cheaper per task: $0.72 to Mistral's $1.13.

The bottom of OpenAI's range is where it gets awkward for Mistral. On 7 October 2026 OpenAI named GPT-6 Luna the model for ChatGPT Free and Go, and it reached them the next day. At its max setting, Luna also scores 38. It costs $0.07 a task. So Mistral Large 4 matches it for 16 times as much. That's a steep premium. Luna also reads a window of 1M tokens, while Mistral Large 4 stops at 524K, so on the API with long files and long chats, OpenAI's cheap model holds about twice as much text in view at once.

The model you get in Vibe is lower still. On 22 May 2026 Mistral called Mistral Medium 3.5 "our new default model in Mistral Vibe and Le Chat", and Medium 3.5 scores 14. Large 4 came out on 6 October 2026 as a public preview on Mistral Studio, the company's API, and Mistral hasn't said it now answers in Vibe.

Every score, cost and test result comes from Artificial Analysis (Intelligence Index v4.3.2). The prices are each maker's own API list price. If you code in a terminal, the gap is big: Sol scores 56% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 and Mistral Large 4 scores 27%. On SciCode, all three of the top models land within a point of each other, at 54%, 54% and 55%. Mistral does beat Luna on Terminal-Bench, 27% to 13%, though Luna wins on Humanity's Last Exam.

How much does Le Chat Pro cost compared with ChatGPT Plus?

Vibe Pro, the plan that used to be Le Chat Pro, costs $14.99 a month before tax, and ChatGPT Plus costs $20. In Apple's App Store on 12 October 2026, the gap was exactly $5 in the US and exactly €5 in France, where the prices include VAT.

The web prices come from Mistral's pricing page and OpenAI's. The App Store columns come from each app's listing in the US and French stores. Mistral's Pro also comes with $15 a month in credits for its API. Its pricing page shows monthly prices only. In the App Store, Apple lists a second Vibe Pro purchase at $149.99 and a second ChatGPT Plus purchase at $200.

Euro buyers on the web pay a local price for ChatGPT, and ChatGPT Plus price by country has the local price country by country. Mistral's pricing page has a euro switch, but we couldn't read a euro amount on it. Even Mistral's French announcement of the rename, on 28 May 2026, priced Pro in dollars, at 14,99$ a month. So the App Store's €17.99 is the only euro price for Vibe Pro we could confirm at a source Mistral or Apple controls.

Is Le Chat free to use?

Yes, Vibe has a free plan on the web and on mobile, but Mistral doesn't publish its limits. The free card on its pricing page promises limited messages and web searches, limited coding sessions, and basic image generation and editing. Pro gets up to 6 times the free messages, 5 times the web searches and 40 times the image generations. The only daily number on the page is for Flash Answers, Mistral's fast reply mode: 150 a day on Pro and 200 on Team.

ChatGPT's free plan gives you more text. OpenAI's pricing page lists unlimited text chats with GPT-6 on Free. Uploads, images, voice, deep research and memory are all limited there. Since 8 October 2026, Free and Go have run on GPT-6 Luna, the model that ties Mistral Large 4 in the chart above.

So on text alone, ChatGPT's free plan has no message cap and Vibe's has one Mistral won't name. ChatGPT free vs paid covers what Plus adds on top.

What changed when Le Chat became Vibe?

Your account carried over, and the app gained new modes. Mistral renamed Le Chat to Vibe on 28 May 2026. Its help article, Le Chat is now Vibe, says your account, plan and chats move with you. The app is still at chat.mistral.ai, with the same login.

Vibe has a Work mode for jobs with many steps across your apps, and it asks before it does anything sensitive. There's also a Code mode that runs in a terminal, in VS Code or on the web. On 22 September 2026, Mistral folded quick chat into Work. A fast or think switch now picks between a quick reply and a longer run.

Three old Le Chat features got new names. Agents are now Skills, and you call one with @. Memories became the Knowledge Base. Deep Research moved into a Skill of its own. Mistral's Vibe docs list the changes.

Where do Le Chat and ChatGPT store your data?

Mistral keeps your data in the EU by default, and OpenAI keeps it in the US. Mistral's help center says: "By default, your data is hosted in the European Union." It adds that some features can send data outside the EU for a while, to the subprocessors in its Trust Center, under contract safeguards.

OpenAI's European privacy policy names OpenAI Ireland as the controller for users in the EEA. It also says OpenAI processes and stores their personal data on servers in the United States. OpenAI does offer storage in Europe, but only for new ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu workspaces and for API projects.

Both of them train on your chats by default on a personal plan. Both let you switch it off.

On Mistral's phone app, the switch is Settings, Data & Account Controls, then Enable data sharing. Two traps are worth knowing. Mistral's opt out page says the Vibe and API switches are separate, so you'll need to set both. And a thumbs up or down on a Mistral reply lets it use that chat on any plan. How to turn off AI training on your chats walks through both apps.

What can ChatGPT do that Le Chat can't?

ChatGPT has more agent and image features on its paid plans. Here's how the two line up on the features people compare most.

Vibe's free plan does come with more than 100 connectors, which OpenAI's pricing page doesn't list for Free. ChatGPT's Plus adds projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs. Its Pro tier adds Dot and unlimited image creation. If you only chat, most of this won't matter to you.

Should you pick Le Chat or ChatGPT?

Pick ChatGPT for the stronger models and the bigger feature set. Pick Le Chat, now Vibe, when EU storage or the $5 a month decides it.

Whizi is a third option if you want both families in one app. It isn't the answer if EU storage is why you're looking. Whizi Pro costs $29.99 a month with 2,500 credits. It has Mistral Large 3 at 2 credits a message and GPT-6 Sol at 10, and its side by side view sends one prompt to both. Mistral Large 4 is on Powerhouse at $49.99, at 3 credits. Whizi's privacy policy says your data may be processed in Canada and the United States. Mistral in Whizi lists the Mistral rows, and the Le Chat alternative page covers when to stay.