Command A+
Cohere's open-source 218B Mixture-of-Experts LLM built for agentic coding workflows, multilingual tasks, and document processing — runs on as few as 2 H100s.
Updated 2026-05-26
Yes. Command A+ is free to use.
Listed pricing: Free API tier + open weights (Apache 2.0).
Overview
Command A+ is Cohere's flagship open-weight model, a 218-billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts architecture released under Apache 2.0 in May 2026. The MoE design activates only a subset of parameters per inference pass, which is how Cohere gets a model this large running on just two H100 GPUs — a significant hardware efficiency advantage over similarly-sized dense models. It's built from the ground up for agentic workflows: multi-step tool use, code generation, retrieval-augmented generation, and structured document processing.
What sets Command A+ apart from generic LLMs in the coding category is Cohere's focus on enterprise agentic use cases. The model is designed to chain tool calls, parse complex documents with mixed modalities (text, tables, charts), and operate across 23+ languages. For teams building AI agents that need to reason over codebases, process documentation, or orchestrate multi-step workflows, this is purpose-built rather than adapted after the fact.
The open-weight angle is the real differentiator. While GPT-4 and Claude are API-only, Command A+ can be self-hosted — critical for regulated industries or sovereign AI deployments. Quantized versions on Hugging Face make it accessible on smaller GPU setups. The trade-off: Cohere's ecosystem is thinner than OpenAI's or Anthropic's, and the model's raw conversational ability doesn't match the polish of ChatGPT or Claude for general chat use.
Is Command A+ free?
Yes. Command A+ is free to use.
What the free tier covers: Free API tier with rate limits for development; open weights downloadable from Hugging Face under Apache 2.0.
Listed pricing: Free API tier + open weights (Apache 2.0).
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
What the free tier leaves out
Read straight off the plan list below. Vendors move features between tiers, so check the current split before you pay.
- Cohere API — Production Check website for current pricing Higher rate limits, production SLAs, enterprise support available
Command A+ pricing
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Cohere API — Free | Free | Rate-limited access for prototyping and evaluation |
| Cohere API — Production | Check website for current pricing | Higher rate limits, production SLAs, enterprise support available |
| Self-hosted | Free (Apache 2.0) | Open weights on Hugging Face. Quantized versions available. Minimum 2x H100 GPUs for full model |
Rate-limited access for prototyping and evaluation
Higher rate limits, production SLAs, enterprise support available
Open weights on Hugging Face. Quantized versions available. Minimum 2x H100 GPUs for full model
One plan carries no published number: Cohere API — Production, recorded as “Check website for current pricing”. Nothing is estimated in its place. The vendor's own pricing page is the only source for those figures.
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
Is Command A+ worth it?
Worth it for Enterprise AI agent builders and regulated or sovereign-AI teams who need a self-hostable open-weight model for agentic coding and document workflows.
You can test that on the free tier before paying anything. The recorded trade-offs are listed below, and any one of them can settle the question on its own.
The 8.5/10 AI Score is an editorial read of published capability, price and shipping pace. Nobody here has hands-on hours with Command A+. How we verify.
Worth it if
The strengths recorded against this entry.
- Open-source Apache 2.0 license allows self-hosting, fine-tuning, and full data sovereignty
- 218B MoE runs on just 2 H100s — exceptional hardware efficiency for a model of this capability
- Strong agentic and tool-use benchmarks make it a serious option for AI agent builders
- 23+ language support positions it well for global and sovereign AI deployments
Not worth it if
Any one of these blocks your use case.
- Cohere's developer ecosystem is much smaller than OpenAI's or Anthropic's — fewer integrations and community resources
- General chat and creative writing quality trails behind ChatGPT and Claude
- Self-hosting still requires H100-class hardware — not accessible to hobbyists or small teams without cloud GPU budgets
- Production API pricing is not clearly published — requires contacting sales or checking the console
What sets Command A+ apart
- 218B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts model runs on as few as 2 H100 GPUs
- Apache 2.0 open weights allow self-hosting, fine-tuning, and data sovereignty
- Supports 23+ languages for global and sovereign deployments
- Built specifically for tool-chaining agentic workflows rather than general chat
Key features
Agentic Coding
Purpose-built for multi-step agentic workflows: tool chaining, code generation, debugging, and structured output. Benchmarks show strong performance on agentic coding tasks compared to models in its class.
MoE Architecture
218B total parameters using Mixture-of-Experts, activating only a fraction per forward pass. This enables frontier-class capability while running on as few as 2 H100 GPUs — dramatically lower hardware requirements than dense models of similar quality.
Multilingual
Supports 23+ languages with strong performance across them, making it suitable for global enterprise deployments and sovereign AI initiatives where local language support is non-negotiable.
Document Processing
Multimodal document understanding handles mixed content including text, tables, charts, and structured data. Designed for RAG pipelines and enterprise knowledge extraction workflows.
How it compares
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Command A+ | Enterprise AI agent builders and regulated or sovereign-AI teams who need a self-hostable open-weight model for agentic coding and document workflows. | Free API tier + open weights (Apache 2.0) | 8.5/10 |
| Cursor vs Cursor → | Professional developers handling complex, multi-file refactors who want AI built into a familiar VS Code-based editor. | Freemium | 9.5/10 |
| GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.5 → | Developers and teams needing a frontier reasoning model for agentic coding workflows and large-codebase context handling. | API: $5/$30 per 1M tokens (in/out). ChatGPT Plus $20/mo, Pro $200/mo | 9.4/10 |
| Claude Code vs Claude Code → | Developers who want an agent that works inside an existing repo and toolchain rather than in a hosted editor, and who already pay for a Claude plan. | Included with Claude Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans | 9.3/10 |
Compare head-to-head
Related reading
GPT-5.6 Sol Drops to $4/$20 on the API
OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Sol to $4/$20 per million tokens through at least 21 Nov 2026. What changed, who pays less, and how it sits next to Terra, Luna, and Claude.
Runway Ruby Turns SDR Clips Into HDR Files
Runway Ruby converts SDR video to HDR10, HLG, ProRes, or EXR on Max and Enterprise. Limits, credits, and how it differs from Gen-4.5 HDR output.
DeepSeek Harness: Open Agent Runtime, How to Run It
DeepSeek open-sourced an MIT-licensed agent runtime on August 13. Plugin architecture, Trajectory replay, and the npx command to run it locally.
Ready to try Command A+?
Head to the official site to start with Command A+ — pricing and plans are listed above.
Visit Command A+