European AI Alternatives – Is It Time to Make the Switch?

It’s (understandably) not every European company that feels comfortable putting all its AI eggs in the baskets of the big American or Chinese providers - especially given their somewhat looser approach to regulation and data ethics. European AI tools, however, have long lagged behind in performance, making it difficult to find real alternatives. But now, there finally seems to be light at the end of the European AI tunnel.

Why Do We Need European Alternatives in AI?

Ever since ChatGPT was released to the public, there’s been a growing demand for a European alternative to OpenAI’s large language models - and to the many U.S. and Chinese models that followed in its wake.

The demand among European organizations mainly stems from a healthy dose of skepticism about handing over their data to tech giants in the U.S. and China - both of which tend to take a more relaxed approach to regulation and data ethics than we do here in the EU.

So, what’s the big issue?

That the strong European alternatives have been slow to appear. While the American and Chinese AI companies have raced ahead in performance, the EU has spent the time hammering out its AI Act. As a result, the most advanced and widely used AI models - across language, development, image, video, and agent technology - are currently American or Chinese. Just to name a few: OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Anthropic, xAI, and Midjourney are all based in the U.S. And the two strongest alternatives, Qwen and DeepSeek? They’re Chinese.

So far, European companies have been faced with three options: Use the most capable AI tools and hand over their data to U.S. or Chinese companies, choose less powerful European alternatives, or hold off on their AI ambitions altogether.

But that may finally be about to change.

What European AI Alternatives Are Emerging?

We may be reaching a real turning point for European AI.

The EU is now investing billions (around €155 billion, to be exact) in data centers, LLM development, and funding for European AI start-ups. At the same time, European cloud providers such as Hetzner and STACKIT are beginning to show real progress - especially after Trump reignited concerns about the use of American cloud services.

So, if you’re looking for an exit plan from Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, there’s hope coming from Germany. In fact, Denmark’s Financial Services Union now recommends that organizations have a European plan B for hosting.

And then, of course, there are the European LLMs, which are finally getting very good. The latest models from France-based Mistral are particularly promising, including their AI assistant Le Chat and their new reasoning model Magistral. (Edit, Sep 2025: Mistral has also added MCP support to Le Chat, allowing for integrations with external tools.)

Le Chat is open source and, thanks to its Flash Answers feature, ranks among the fastest models on the market, especially when it comes to handling relatively simple queries. It’s also proven to be a strong coding model, following programming instructions closely and generating fully functional code. In addition, the model supports image generation and multimodal capabilities, and, importantly, it’s built according to EU regulations with privacy by design at its core.

Magistral is Mistral’s new reasoning model which, according to their own performance benchmarks, scores just slightly below DeepSeek. It’s available in two versions: The open Magistral Small and the enterprise-grade Magistral Medium, which is currently in preview via Le Chat. Like other reasoning models, Magistral excels at handling more complex tasks such as research, software development, and large-scale content creation.

So, if you’re looking for a European alternative to ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, or Claude, Mistral’s models are probably where you should start.
(Edit, Sep 2025: Switzerland has also entered the race with an open-source model called Apertus — worth checking out while you’re in the French-speaking neighborhood.)

The demand for European AI alternatives has finally been met. The technology behind both LLMs and cloud hosting is now strong enough to cover a wide range of real-world use cases.

Other noteworthy European AI services include Sanalabs, a Swedish AI assistant that integrates seamlessly with your company data, and n8n from Germany - which we actually use ourselves at Vertica for automation flows.

Then there’s LibreOffice, an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. You’ll need to install plugins to get AI functionality similar to Copilot, but it’s quickly gaining traction. In fact, Denmark’s Minister for Digitalisation, Caroline Stage, recently announced plans to phase out Microsoft Office in large parts of the public sector in favor of LibreOffice - part of a digital strategy aimed at reducing dependence on U.S.-based services.

Finally, for a broader overview of European AI tools, you can explore the European AI Atlas.

Is It Worth Switching to European AI Services?

One of the main challenges for European AI providers is timing. They simply arrived late to the game.

Even though Mistral now offers models that almost match ChatGPT, DeepSeek and other U.S.-based players, and even though solid European cloud alternatives exist, most Danish and European companies have already built their setups on American platforms - which, for a long time, have been the strongest on the market.

On top of that, many professionals (and private users) have become deeply accustomed to tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot - both at work and at home.

So, while the technology itself is finally up to standard, adopting European AI tools still requires a significant behavioral shift. For companies, it can also mean a costly and complex technical restructuring if both cloud hosting and AI services are to be migrated.

That means the organizations most likely to benefit from switching are those with a strong focus on compliance, or those handling large volumes of sensitive or confidential data, where alignment with EU regulations, the AI Act and GDPR is a top priority.

If your organization hasn’t yet started its AI initiatives, now might be the perfect time to explore whether your setup could, and perhaps should, be built around EU-based services to ensure greater control over ethics, legality, and data security.

Because the technology is ready. European AI and cloud solutions can now handle a wide range of use cases. So if keeping your data on European ground matters to you, it’s worth evaluating whether your AI workflows can run on European platforms - and whether you might even switch from ChatGPT to Le Chat in your daily work. That said, the American players are still one step ahead when it comes to the most complex and large-scale use cases. The decision ultimately comes down to how advanced your AI ambitions are - and how much compliance risk you can tolerate.

It’s also worth noting that Microsoft and OpenAI are taking clear steps to accommodate European standards. Microsoft has launched a major EU digital engagement plan, while OpenAI now allows enterprise customers to store their data in Europe. There are even signs that the EU may revisit the AI Act, potentially easing some of its strictest provisions - which could, in time, solve some of the current regulatory tensions with U.S. services.

In short:
The demand for European AI alternatives has finally been met. The technology behind both LLMs and cloud hosting is now strong enough for most real-world applications. Whether switching makes sense for your business depends entirely on your technical needs and compliance requirements. But one thing is clear: There’s never been a better moment to go European.