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Command R+ (08-2024) vs Phi-3.5 Medium

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 · Phi-3.5 Medium specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceCommand R+ (08-2024)

    Command R+ (08-2024) publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-3.5 Medium does not.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksPhi-3.5 Medium

    Phi-3.5 Medium leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on MMLU (broad academic knowledge), where it scores 78.9 vs 75.7.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Command R+ (08-2024) and Phi-3.5 Medium: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Command R+ (08-2024) publishes pricing ($10.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-3.5 Medium does not. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

Phi-3.5 Medium leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on MMLU (broad academic knowledge), where it scores 78.9 vs 75.7. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Command R+ (08-2024) is usually picked for rag and data extraction workloads, while Phi-3.5 Medium sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. 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)Phi-3.5 Medium
ProviderCohereMicrosoft
ReleasedAug 2024Aug 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.50 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$10.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (CC-BY-NC 4.0)Yes (MIT)
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 ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$225 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$435 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

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
  • Phi-3.5 MediumPricing unavailable

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)Phi-3.5 Medium
  • MMLU75.778.9
Pick Command R+ (08-2024) if

Command R+ (08-2024) fits when…

  • RAG-tuned
  • Citation generation
  • Enterprise tooling
Pick Phi-3.5 Medium if

Phi-3.5 Medium fits when…

  • MIT license
  • 128k context
  • Strong reasoning at 14B
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 RPhi-3.5 Medium vs Command R

Frequently asked

  • Is Command R+ (08-2024) or Phi-3.5 Medium cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Command R+ (08-2024) and Phi-3.5 Medium ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Command R+ (08-2024) or Phi-3.5 Medium better for coding?
    Both Command R+ (08-2024) and Phi-3.5 Medium 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?
    Both ship with open weights. Command R+ (08-2024) is licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0; Phi-3.5 Medium under MIT.
  • When were Command R+ (08-2024) and Phi-3.5 Medium released?
    Command R+ (08-2024) was released by Cohere on 2024-08-30. Phi-3.5 Medium was released by Microsoft on 2024-08-20.
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