Ecosia leaves Mistral as cost beats European AI loyalty
In brief
German search engine Ecosia has stopped using Mistral's models. Founder and CEO Christian Kroll told Politico he was disappointed with their quality after switching from OpenAI in May, and he also cited recurring technical issues. Ecosia is now turning to open-weight models, including Chinese ones, through a partnership with the Melious platform.
Source : Next - « Ecosia lâche Mistral et se tourne vers les modèles chinois »
What it changes for an SME
This change at Ecosia does not force an SME of 10 to 250 people to switch tools. According to Christian Kroll, moving to open-weight models hosted by Melious, including Chinese models such as Qwen, GLM and Kimi, cut costs by about half while improving quality and performance. The decision moves away from a French supplier and raises sovereignty and bias questions, which Kroll says can be corrected, unlike quality shortfalls. Qwant told Next it still uses Mistral for now but is assessing other options after recent price changes.
What you can do
- If you already pay for a hosted model, compare cost and service quality with open-weight options before you renew.
- Check where inference runs and whether a Chinese open-weight model meets your data confidentiality rules.
- Ask your current AI vendor whether pricing is changing, as Qwant says recent Mistral price changes prompted a review.
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