Send your first API request

Create an API key, install the SDK, and send a chat completion request.

• Install the Python or TypeScript SDK
• Send a request to a Mistral model
• Print the model's response

Everything here is the foundation for the agent and RAG quickstarts that follow.

Time to complete: ~5 minutes

• Python 3.9+ or Node.js 18+ installed on your machine.
• A Mistral AI account. Create account ↗
• A Mistral API key. Studio is enabled in Free mode by default, with no credit card required. Follow the Activate Studio and generate an API key quickstart if you don't have one yet.

1. Open Studio›API keys ↗.
2. Click Create new key.
3. Give the key a name (for example, quickstart) and click Create.
4. Copy the key to your clipboard. The key appears only once; if you lose it, generate a new one.
5. Set the key as an environment variable in your terminal:

export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

pip install mistralai

pip install mistralai

Create a file and add the following code:

# quickstart.py
import os
from mistralai import Mistral

client = Mistral(api_key=os.environ["MISTRAL_API_KEY"])

response = client.chat.complete(
    model="mistral-large-latest",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "What is Mistral AI?"}
    ],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

# quickstart.py
import os
from mistralai import Mistral

client = Mistral(api_key=os.environ["MISTRAL_API_KEY"])

response = client.chat.complete(
    model="mistral-large-latest",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "What is Mistral AI?"}
    ],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

python quickstart.py

python quickstart.py

The terminal prints a short description of Mistral AI. If it doesn't, check the error table below.