Mistral Large 2 Environmental Impact
Mistral's flagship model with published LCA
Energy per query
1.8 Wh
6x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
1.1 g
Western Europe grid (300 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
45 mL
~22 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Azure France / EU regions
Provider
Mistral AI
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
300 g CO2/kWh (45% renewable)
How does Mistral Large 2 compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Mistral Large 2 consumes approximately 1.8 Wh per 400-token response, based on Mistral's official Life Cycle Assessment (conducted with Carbone 4 and the French environment agency ADEME) — one of the few AI companies to publish detailed environmental impact data. Crucially, its headline 1.14 g CO2e and 45 mL figures are lifecycle (training-amortised) values: they include an allocated share of model training and hardware manufacturing, not just the direct grid emissions of a single inference. At 123B parameters, it is a dense model without MoE optimisation.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs primarily on Azure infrastructure in France and EU regions. France's electricity grid has a carbon intensity of approximately 50 g CO2/kWh — among the lowest in Europe — due to its heavy reliance on nuclear power (~70%). This significantly reduces the carbon footprint per query compared to models running on US grids. Note that Mistral's published 1.14 g CO2e figure is a lifecycle (training-amortised) number, so it is not directly comparable to the direct-grid CO2 figures we compute for Mistral's other models (energy × 50 gCO2/kWh).
Water Usage
At approximately 45 mL per 400-token response, Mistral Large 2's water figure is notably high precisely because it is a full lifecycle (cradle-to-grave) number from Mistral's Carbone 4 / ADEME LCA — it counts upstream supply-chain and manufacturing water, not just on-site cooling. It should not be compared directly with the direct-cooling water estimates we give for other models.
About Mistral Large 2
Mistral Large 2 is an open-source text and chat model from Mistral AI, released in July 24, 2024, that runs below the category average for energy consumption at 1.8 Wh per query. Because its weights are publicly available, it can be self-hosted on any infrastructure — meaning its carbon footprint depends entirely on where and how you choose to run it. At 123B parameters, it mistral's flagship model with published lca.
Mistral Large 2 in Context
Your yearly Mistral Large 2 footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual Mistral Large 2 usage consumes 16.4 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 10.4 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
Mistral AI Mistral Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Mistral Large 2 usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Mistral Large 2.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Mistral Large 2 use per query?
Each Mistral Large 2 query consumes approximately 1.8 Wh of energy. This is 6x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Mistral Large 2's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Azure France / EU regions, each query produces approximately 1.1 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 300 g CO2/kWh with 45% renewable energy.
How much water does Mistral Large 2 use?
Each query consumes approximately 45 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Mistral Large 2 compare to a Google search?
A Mistral Large 2 query uses 6x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Mistral Large 2 uses 1.8 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer (decoder-only)
Parameters
123B
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2024-07-24
Open source
Yes