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Model comparison

Cohere Command A+ vs MiniMax M2.5

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

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Cohere

Cohere Command A+

Balanced · Open weights

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M2.5

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationCohere Command A+MiniMax M2.5
ProviderCohereMiniMax
TierBalancedBalanced
Context window128KWinner: 205K
Max output64KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.80Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens$3.20Winner: $1.20
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters218B total / 25B active (sparse MoE)open MoE
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext
LicenseApache 2.0Not disclosedUnverified
API model idcommand-a-plus-05-2026Not publishedUnverified
ReleasedMay 20, 2026February 12, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)13.1Winner: 22.8

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

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis (AA-estimated)

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — 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.

MiniMax M2.5: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API (cache read $0.03). MiniMax lists M2.5 as a legacy model. Open weights (community license).

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 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.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5 is a legacy open-weight MiniMax MoE with a 204,800-token context.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal

Watch out

Legacy: MiniMax's current models are M3 (1M context, multimodal) and M2.7 at the same $0.30/$1.20 price.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M2.5 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $3.20 for Cohere Command A+ — about 2.7×. 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 2 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+ · MiniMax M2.5

Common questions

Cohere Command A+ vs MiniMax M2.5

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

Is Cohere Command A+ or MiniMax M2.5 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $0.80 for Cohere Command A+ — roughly 2.7× 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. MiniMax M2.5 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API (cache read $0.03). MiniMax lists M2.5 as a legacy model. Open weights (community license).
Is Cohere Command A+ or MiniMax M2.5 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M2.5 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $3.20 for Cohere Command A+ — roughly 2.7× 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. MiniMax M2.5 has tiered pricing: $0.30/$1.20 per MTok on MiniMax's pay-as-you-go API (cache read $0.03). MiniMax lists M2.5 as a legacy model. Open weights (community license).
Which has the larger context window, Cohere Command A+ or MiniMax M2.5?
MiniMax M2.5 accepts 205K tokens against 128K for Cohere Command A+. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Cohere Command A+ and MiniMax M2.5 support the same reasoning levels?
Cohere Command A+ exposes low, medium, high, while MiniMax M2.5 exposes low, high, max.
Should I use Cohere Command A+ or MiniMax M2.5?
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; MiniMax M2.5 suits open-weight deployments.

Next step

Choosing between them

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

  • Input price: MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $0.80 for Cohere Command A+ — a 2.7x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: MiniMax M2.5 takes 205K against 128K for Cohere Command A+ — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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