Command R vs o3
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 specs · o3 specs- PriceCommand R
Command R is roughly 5.3× cheaper on output tokens ($1.50 vs $8.00 per 1M).
- Context windowo3
o3 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.
- Modalitieso3
o3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Command R.
- OpennessCommand R
Command R ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); o3 is API-only.
It's a genuine coin-flip between Command R and o3: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. Command R is roughly 5.3× cheaper on output tokens ($1.50 vs $8.00 per 1M). o3 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. They differ in modality coverage, Command R handles text while o3 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Command R ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); o3 is API-only.
o3 is the newer of the two, released 13 months after Command R, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Command R is usually picked for rag and customer support workloads, while o3 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
| Spec | Command R | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Cohere | OpenAI |
| Released | Mar 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.50 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $1.50 / 1M tokens | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | Yes (CC-BY-NC 4.0) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$3.75 vs $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$37.50 vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$84.00 vs $348
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $3.75 vs $18.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $37.50 vs $180 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $84.00 vs $348 per month, model A comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Command R$0.125
- o3$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval,95.0
- GPQA,87.7
Command R fits when…
- Cheap RAG
- Reliable tool-use
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 5.3× cheaper than o3 on output tokens.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
o3 fits when…
- Industry-leading reasoning depth at launch
- Strong on math, science, and abstract puzzles
- Tool-use during reasoning loops
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Command R.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider Command R+ (08-2024)
Cohere's flagship optimized for RAG and tool use in enterprise settings.
Frequently asked
Is Command R or o3 cheaper?
Command R is cheaper at $1.50 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for o3.Which has the larger context window?
o3 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Command R.Is Command R or o3 better for coding?
Both Command R and o3 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 ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0). o3 is API-only.When were Command R and o3 released?
Command R was released by Cohere on 2024-03-11. o3 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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