Activate Studio and generate an API key

Set up your Studio›Studio ↗ account, activate the free Experiment plan, and create an API key you can use to call Mistral models.

• Experiment plan: free API access with no credit card required
• Workspace-scoped keys: API keys are tied to a workspace for usage tracking and access control
• Secure key management: set expiration dates and rotate keys regularly

By the end you will have a working API key ready to use in your first request.

Time to complete: ~10 minutes

• A Mistral account ↗.
• A phone number for verification (one phone number per Experiment plan).

The Experiment plan gives you free access to the Mistral API. No credit card is required.

1. Go to the Admin›Subscriptions page ↗.
2. Click Experiment for free.

3. Review the plan details, read and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, then click Subscribe.
4. Verify your phone number when prompted.

You now have an active Experiment plan. You can upgrade to the Scale plan at any time for higher rate limits, frontier model access, and fine-tuning.

Workspaces organize your API keys, usage reports, and team access. Each API key belongs to a specific workspace.

1. Open the Studio›Studio console ↗.
2. Navigate to Workspaces in the left sidebar.
3. Click Create workspace.
4. Enter a name for the workspace (for example, "Development" or "Production").
5. Click Create.

1. Open your workspace settings and select the API Keys tab.
2. Click Create new key.

3. Add a Name to identify the key (for example, "First test key").
4. Set an Expiration date. Regular rotation improves security.

5. Click Create new key.
6. Copy the key immediately and store it in a secure location (password manager or secrets vault).

You have completed the setup:

1. Your Experiment plan is active.
2. You have a workspace.
3. You have an API key stored securely.

Test the key with a quick curl request:

curl https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MISTRAL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mistral-small-latest",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Mistral!"}]
  }'

curl https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MISTRAL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mistral-small-latest",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Mistral!"}]
  }'

A successful response confirms your key is working.