LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Command R+ (08-2024) vs o3-mini

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Command R+ (08-2024) specs · o3-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo3-mini

    o3-mini is roughly 2.3× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $10.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowo3-mini

    o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessCommand R+ (08-2024)

    Command R+ (08-2024) ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); o3-mini is API-only.

On balance o3-mini edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Command R+ (08-2024)'s 1. o3-mini is roughly 2.3× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $10.00 per 1M). o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Command R+ (08-2024) ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); o3-mini is API-only.

o3-mini is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Command R+ (08-2024), which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Command R+ (08-2024) is usually picked for rag and data extraction workloads, while o3-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecCommand R+ (08-2024)o3-mini
ProviderCohereOpenAI
ReleasedAug 2024Jan 2025
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.50 / 1M tokens$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$10.00 / 1M tokens$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2023-10
Open weightsYes (CC-BY-NC 4.0)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$22.50 vs $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$225 vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$435 vs $191

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $22.50 vs $9.90 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $225 vs $99.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $435 vs $191 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Command R+ (08-2024)$0.750
  • o3-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Command R+ (08-2024)o3-mini
  • MMLU75.7
  • GPQA,79.7
Pick Command R+ (08-2024) if

Command R+ (08-2024) fits when…

  • RAG-tuned
  • Citation generation
  • Enterprise tooling
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
Pick o3-mini if

o3-mini fits when…

  • Reasoning at mid-tier cost
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.3× cheaper than Command R+ (08-2024) on output tokens.
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Command R+ (08-2024).
Don't want either?

Consider Command R

Cohere's mid-tier RAG-optimized model, affordable and reliable on retrieval workloads.

See Command R specsCommand R+ (08-2024) vs Command Ro3-mini vs Command R

Frequently asked

  • Is Command R+ (08-2024) or o3-mini cheaper?
    o3-mini is cheaper at $4.40 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $10.00 / 1M tokens for Command R+ (08-2024).
  • Which has the larger context window?
    o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Command R+ (08-2024).
  • Is Command R+ (08-2024) or o3-mini better for coding?
    Both Command R+ (08-2024) and o3-mini are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Command R+ (08-2024) ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0). o3-mini is API-only.
  • When were Command R+ (08-2024) and o3-mini released?
    Command R+ (08-2024) was released by Cohere on 2024-08-30. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.