Is Cohere Command R or GPT-4o mini cheaper in 2026?

GPT-4o mini, for every workload modelled here. On a blended 3:1 basis it costs $0.262 per million tokens against Cohere Command R's $0.262.

Which is cheaper for output-heavy work like agents?

GPT-4o mini, at $0.600 per million output tokens against $0.600. Reasoning tokens bill as output, so for agentic loops this axis usually decides the invoice regardless of what the input rates look like.

What is not included in these figures?

Batch-processing discounts, fine-tuning, long-context surcharges above a provider's standard tier, and any enterprise agreement. These are published pay-as-you-go list prices, checked against each provider's own pricing page on the date shown.

Cohere Command R vs GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini is cheaper for every workload modelled here.

List prices checked May 2026

Specifications and rates

Property	Cohere Command R	GPT-4o mini
Input per 1M	$0.150	$0.150
Output per 1M	$0.600	$0.600
Cached input per 1M	—	$0.075
Blended (3:1)	$0.262	$0.262
Context window	128K	128K
Max output	—	16K
Inputs accepted	text	text, image

Source: Cohere pricing (May 2026) · OpenAI pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.

Monthly cost by workload

Identical token volumes through both rate cards. Output-heavy profiles are where the ranking flips.

Workload	Cohere Command R	GPT-4o mini	Cheaper
In-app chat assistantA support or help assistant handling a few thousand conversations a month, with short prompts and short answers.	$6.00	$6.00	Cohere Command Rsaves $0/mo
RAG over documentsRetrieval-augmented answering where each request stuffs several retrieved passages into the prompt, so input dominates.	$54	$54	Cohere Command Rsaves $0/mo
Coding agentAn agentic loop that reads files and writes patches, generating heavy output and re-sending large context on every turn.	$120	$120	Cohere Command Rsaves $0/mo

What each one is for

Cohere Command R

by Cohere

The cheap end of Cohere's range, aimed at retrieval pipelines where the model's job is to ground an answer in supplied documents rather than to reason from scratch.

GPT-4o mini

by OpenAI

The model that made per-token cost stop mattering for most simple tasks, and the benchmark every subsequent cheap model has been priced against.

Common questions

Is Cohere Command R or GPT-4o mini cheaper in 2026?: GPT-4o mini, for every workload modelled here. On a blended 3:1 basis it costs $0.262 per million tokens against Cohere Command R's $0.262.
Which has the larger context window?: Both accept 128K tokens.
Which is cheaper for output-heavy work like agents?: GPT-4o mini, at $0.600 per million output tokens against $0.600. Reasoning tokens bill as output, so for agentic loops this axis usually decides the invoice regardless of what the input rates look like.
What is not included in these figures?: Batch-processing discounts, fine-tuning, long-context surcharges above a provider's standard tier, and any enterprise agreement. These are published pay-as-you-go list prices, checked against each provider's own pricing page on the date shown.