command-a
Input price$2.5
Output price$10
CohereText
command-r
command-r is Cohere's model at $2.50 input and $10.00 output per million tokens, with a 128K context window. On a typical 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to roughly $4.38 per million tokens, placing it in the premium band of the 68 models tracked here — cheaper than 19% of them.
Context window128K
Input price$2.5 / 1M
Output price$10 / 1M
Output speed120 tok/s
Quality score75
Data updatedUpdated Jun 2026
Price verified2026-07-10 · OpenRouter
By price, command-r ranks 55th cheapest of 68 on input and 51st on output. Its quality score of 75 ranks 61st of 68, and on value (quality score ÷ output price) it ranks 54th of 68. Its blended rate sits 49% above the catalog average.
In real billing terms: a support chatbot handling 50,000 turns a month (2,000 input / 500 output tokens each) costs about $500 per month on command-r, while a RAG workload of 20,000 queries (8,000 input / 800 output tokens each) runs about $560. Because output is priced 4.0× input here, long-generation tasks scale cost fastest — cap output length before you optimise anything else.
A 128K context window holds roughly 171 pages of A4 text (at ~750 tokens per page), ranking 53rd of 68 here. That covers typical RAG and multi-turn chat, though book-length inputs still need retrieval and chunking. Output runs at about 120 tok/s (24th fastest of 68), fast enough for real-time interaction and high-throughput batches.
We track 2 Cohere models, and command-r's blended rate sits 0% above that provider's average. If your task tolerates a little less headroom, qwen3.5-flash (Alibaba) blends about 99% cheaper at a quality score of 82, and is worth benchmarking first. Going the other way, Phi-4 scores 76 on quality for about 98% less.
The closest model in Cohere's line-up is command-a ($2.50 input / $10.00 output, quality 83). Against it, command-r scores 8 points lower on quality, runs 50 tok/s faster (about 71%), has a 128K smaller context window. When two models sit this close on price, the deciding factor is usually the quality ceiling — run both against your real prompts before picking.
Estimated monthly cost
Monthly API spend across four common workloads, next to the cheapest model we track.
| Workload | Usage assumption | This model | Cheapest model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot | 2,000 input / 500 output tokens per turn, 50,000 turns per month | $500 | $3.00 |
| RAG document Q&A | 8,000 input / 800 output tokens per query, 20,000 queries per month | $560 | $3.84 |
| Coding assistant | 12,000 input / 2,000 output tokens per request, 10,000 requests per month | $500 | $3.20 |
| Batch summarization | 4,000 input / 400 output tokens per item, 200,000 items per month | $2,800 | $19 |
Derived directly from the rates on this page. Excludes prompt caching, batch discounts and free tiers.
How it compares
The alternatives worth benchmarking alongside it, from the same dataset.
| Model | Provider | Blended /1M | Quality | Price delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| command-r | Cohere | $4.38 | 75 | — |
| qwen3.5-flashCheaper option | Alibaba | $0.055 | 82 | -99% |
| Phi-4Higher quality | Microsoft | $0.088 | 76 | -98% |
| command-aSame provider | Cohere | $4.38 | 83 | +0% |
| Phi-4-miniBest value overall | Microsoft | $0.025 | 68 | -99% |
Best for
ChatbotAffordable
Modalities
Text
Where it fits — and where it doesn't
Good fit
- Chat and support: natural multi-turn conversation for user-facing products.
- High throughput and real-time UX: 120 tok/s keeps streamed responses feeling instant.
Poor fit
- High-frequency batch jobs: at $4.38 blended per million tokens, bills scale quickly at volume.
- Hard reasoning: a quality score of 75 is on the low side here; pick a stronger model for complex planning or maths.
- Image understanding: this model is text-only, so vision tasks need a multimodal alternative.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the command-r API cost?
command-r costs $2.50 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens. On a 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $4.38 per million tokens.
What does command-r cost per month?
It depends on volume. Using the four worked scenarios on this page: a support chatbot runs about $500/month, RAG document Q&A about $560/month, a coding assistant about $500/month, and batch summarization about $2,800/month. Plug your own token counts into the cost calculator for a tailored figure.
How large is the command-r context window?
128K tokens — roughly 171 pages of A4 text at ~750 tokens per page, ranking 53rd of the 68 models tracked here.
command-r or qwen3.5-flash — which is better value?
qwen3.5-flash blends to about $0.055 per million tokens versus $4.38 for command-r — roughly 99% cheaper — at a quality score of 82 against 75. If that quality gap does not show up on your task, take the cheaper one; if it does, stay with command-r. Benchmark both on your own data before deciding.
What is command-r best suited for?
Tagged use cases: chatbot, cheap. Chat and support: natural multi-turn conversation for user-facing products. Less suitable: High-frequency batch jobs: at $4.38 blended per million tokens, bills scale quickly at volume.
How current is this command-r pricing?
Pricing here was last verified on 2026-07-10 against OpenRouter. llmprice.app runs a daily collection job, but providers can change rates between runs — confirm against Cohere's official pricing page before you commit.
Estimate the real cost of this model
Bring tokens per request and monthly volume into the calculator to compare total model costs.
Related models
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Pricing, speed and quality scores change over time. Confirm official documentation before production use.