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Model comparison

Cohere Command A+ vs Baidu ERNIE 5.1

Cohere against Baidu, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 4, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Cohere

Cohere Command A+

Balanced · Open weights

vs

Baidu

Baidu ERNIE 5.1

Balanced

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationCohere Command A+Baidu ERNIE 5.1
ProviderCohereBaidu
TierBalancedBalanced
Context windowWinner: 128K64K
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.80Winner: $0.59
Output / 1M tokens$3.20Winner: $2.65
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters218B total / 25B active (sparse MoE)~800B
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highlow, medium, high
Modalitiestexttext, image
LicenseApache 2.0Not disclosedUnverified
API model idCohereLabs/command-a-plus-05-2026ernie-5.1
ReleasedMay 20, 2026May 9, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)43Winner: 48

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

  • 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).

Pricing tiers: Cohere Command A+: Azure-hosted Global rate $0.80/$3.20 per MTok (effective 2026-07-01; Data Zone $0.88/$3.52). Cohere-direct publishes no per-token price: open weights (Apache 2.0), a free rate-limited trial API, and Model Vault/enterprise licensing. Cohere calls it the last model in the Command A family. 218B/25B active sparse MoE. · Baidu ERNIE 5.1: $0.59 input / ~$2.65 output per MTok via Qianfan (output single-source; official USD list not retrievable). Context per Qianfan console: 64K.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 4, 2026

Cohere Command A+

Command A+ is Cohere's open-weight (Apache 2.0) 218B/25B sparse MoE for enterprise use.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Enterprise RAG
  • Tool use

Watch out

The $0.80/$3.20 figure is the Azure-hosted rate, not a Cohere-direct price — Cohere itself sells licenses and a free rate-limited trial, so budget by deployment path.

BalancedRecord checked September 2, 2026

Baidu ERNIE 5.1

ERNIE 5.1 is Baidu's closed flagship with ~800B params and strong Chinese-language performance.

Best for

  • Chinese-language work
  • Enterprise (China)
  • Multimodal

Watch out

Closed API; weights not published.

When the cheaper one wins

Baidu ERNIE 5.1 is cheaper on output at $2.65 per million tokens against $3.20 for Cohere Command A+ — about 1.2×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 7 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Cohere Command A+ · Baidu ERNIE 5.1

Common questions

Cohere Command A+ vs Baidu ERNIE 5.1

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Cohere Command A+ or Baidu ERNIE 5.1 cheaper for input?

Baidu ERNIE 5.1 is cheaper at $0.59 per million input tokens, against $0.80 for Cohere Command A+ — roughly 1.4× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Cohere Command A+ has tiered pricing: Azure-hosted Global rate $0.80/$3.20 per MTok (effective 2026-07-01; Data Zone $0.88/$3.52). Cohere-direct publishes no per-token price: open weights (Apache 2.0), a free rate-limited trial API, and Model Vault/enterprise licensing. Cohere calls it the last model in the Command A family. 218B/25B active sparse MoE. Baidu ERNIE 5.1 has tiered pricing: $0.59 input / ~$2.65 output per MTok via Qianfan (output single-source; official USD list not retrievable). Context per Qianfan console: 64K.

Is Cohere Command A+ or Baidu ERNIE 5.1 cheaper for output?

Baidu ERNIE 5.1 is cheaper at $2.65 per million output tokens, against $3.20 for Cohere Command A+ — roughly 1.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Cohere Command A+ has tiered pricing: Azure-hosted Global rate $0.80/$3.20 per MTok (effective 2026-07-01; Data Zone $0.88/$3.52). Cohere-direct publishes no per-token price: open weights (Apache 2.0), a free rate-limited trial API, and Model Vault/enterprise licensing. Cohere calls it the last model in the Command A family. 218B/25B active sparse MoE. Baidu ERNIE 5.1 has tiered pricing: $0.59 input / ~$2.65 output per MTok via Qianfan (output single-source; official USD list not retrievable). Context per Qianfan console: 64K.

Which has the larger context window, Cohere Command A+ or Baidu ERNIE 5.1?

Cohere Command A+ accepts 128K tokens against 64K for Baidu ERNIE 5.1. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do Cohere Command A+ and Baidu ERNIE 5.1 support the same reasoning levels?

Yes — both accept the same effort settings: "low", "medium", "high". Higher effort costs more and takes longer, so start low and raise it only where output quality actually improves.

Should I use Cohere Command A+ or Baidu ERNIE 5.1?

Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Cohere Command A+ suits open-weight deployments; Baidu ERNIE 5.1 suits chinese-language work.

Can I self-host Cohere Command A+ or Baidu ERNIE 5.1?

Cohere Command A+ publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Baidu ERNIE 5.1 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Baidu ERNIE 5.1 costs $0.59 per 1M tokens versus $0.80 for Cohere Command A+ — a 1.4x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Cohere Command A+ takes 128K against 64K for Baidu ERNIE 5.1 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Baidu ERNIE 5.1 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 48 to 43 (measured 2026-08-14).
  • Deployment: Cohere Command A+ publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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