Cohere today
Starts at
$3/hour per instance
- Contract
- Model Vault supports monthly or annual commitments
- Free plan
- Time-limited: Free Trial API key, rate limited, not for production or commercial use
Free plan, which Cohere doesn't show (9)
A free plan you can keep, in the vendor's own words.
| Alternative | Starts at | Against Cohere | States that Cohere doesn't | Contract | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hugging FacePRO, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$9/moPRO plan, starting price | Not comparable | Public API access, SSO, Public API | Enterprise plan has annual commitments | Free account with unlimited public models, datasets and applications; paid... |
 Mistral AIPro, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$14.99/moPro plan, starting price | Not comparable | Public API access, Image and audio input, SSO, Public API and 1 more | Not found | Free plan with limited access to Vibe (chat, search, creation, coding) and... |
 Anthropic ClaudePro, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$20/moPro plan, starting price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, SSO, HIPAA BAA and 1 more | Enterprise is annual only; Pro and Team can be monthly or annual | Free plan with chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation... |
| OpenAIBusiness Standard seat, read Oct 29, 2026 | $25/userBusiness Standard seat plan, starting price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, Image and audio input, SOC 2 compliance and 4 more | Not found | A free version of ChatGPT is available to everyone (consumer plan); details... |
 UpstageCommitment tier Explore, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$100/moCommitment tier Explore plan, starting price | Not comparable | Public API access, Tool and function calling, Public API | Not found | Studio agents include 10 free runs with no credit card; File Search beta is... |
 Gemini Enterprise Agent Platformread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.085/vCPU-hourUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Image and audio input, Public API | Not found | A free usage tier renews monthly per account for each Agent resource (50... |
 Google Geminiread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.25/1M tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, Tool and function calling, Image and audio input and 1 more | Not found | Free tier gives limited access to certain models with free input and output... |
 OpenRouterread Oct 29, 2026 |
$5.50/unitUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Tool and function calling, Image and audio input, SOC 2 compliance and 4 more | No minimums or lock-in on Standard and Business | Free plan with 25+ free models and 4 free providers; free models capped at... |
 xAI Grokread Oct 29, 2026 |
$2/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, Image and audio input, SOC 2 compliance and 5 more | Not found | Free Console account with a Playground to test Grok models; API usage itself... |
Other options (8)
No computed reason to switch, listed for completeness.
| Alternative | Starts at | Against Cohere | States that Cohere doesn't | Contract | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 AI21 Labsread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.20/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, Zero data retention option, Public API | Not found | Trial: $10 credits for 7 days, no credit card needed |
 Amazon Bedrockread Oct 29, 2026 |
$2/1,000 queriesUsage price | Not comparable | Image and audio input, SOC 2 compliance, Zero data retention option, SOC 2 and 1 more | Not found | Not found |
 Anyscaleread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.0135/hourUsage price | Not comparable | SSO | Pay-as-you-go is month-to-month; prepaid committed services are... | Trial: $100 in Anyscale credits on signup (one-time credit, not time-limited as stated) |
 Fireworks AIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.008/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Long context window, Image and audio input, SOC 2 compliance and 5 more | Not found | Trial: Muse Glimmer 30B SFT free via UI and Serverless Training API until 11/30, no... |
 Nebiusread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.74/GPU-hourUsage price | Not comparable | SOC 2 compliance, SOC 2, HIPAA BAA | Usage commitments available for long-term workloads | Not found |
 Perplexity APIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.0005/invocationUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Tool and function calling, Image and audio input, Public API and 1 more | Not found | Not found |
 Replicateread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.000025/secondUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Public API, MCP server | Not found | Not found |
 Together AIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.15/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Public API access, Image and audio input, Zero data retention option, Public API | Term continues until use stops or Company terminates; you may not... | Not found |
No price found, or contact sales (7)
- Alibaba Qwenself serve
- Databricks Mosaic AIhybrid
- DeepSeekcontact the vendor
- Meta Llamahybrid
- Microsoft Azure OpenAI Servicehybrid
- SiliconFlowhybrid
- Snowflake Cortex AIhybrid
Questions
Is there a free alternative to Cohere?
Yes. 9 large language models have a free plan, including Hugging Face, Mistral AI, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Upstage.
How this page is made
Alternatives come from Cohere's own category, Large language models. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page and are compared at the same volume where both can be computed, and by starting price where neither can. "States that Cohere doesn't" lists what we found on the other vendor's site and didn't find on Cohere's, which doesn't prove Cohere lacks it. How prices are read.