Is Command R+ (08-2024) a good deal?

Whether anything in this catalogue beats Command R+ (08-2024) on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion.

13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026

As of Sep 23, 2026, Command R+ (08-2024) is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 265.9 higher and costs 66% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated.

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Current model

Command R+ (08-2024)

Balanced

3 tokens in per 1 out

Gemini 3.8 Flash is both better and cheaper than Command R+ (08-2024): 265.9 points higher on LMArena and 66% less per million tokens, $2.88 cheaper at this mix.

Command R+ (08-2024)

LMArena Elo · higher is better

Scale starts at 1040 Elo

1228.8

Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better

$4.38/M

Gemini 3.8 Flash

LMArena Elo · higher is better

Scale starts at 1040 Elo

1494.7

Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better

$1.50/M

Command R+ (08-2024) takes text, returns up to 4,000 tokens from a 128,000-token context, and is listed by 1 seller.

Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 101 models dominate it and give up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. Command R+ (08-2024) scores 1228.8 at $4.38 per million tokens for this mix.

Envelope-safe replacements

Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here.

ModelLMArenaEffective $/MYou save
Gemini 3.8 Flash1494.7 +265.9$1.50/M66%
Gemini 3.7 Flash1490.5 +261.7$1.50/M66%
Muse Spark 1.31489.7 +260.9$2.00/M54%
Muse Spark 1.11480.2 +251.4$2.00/M54%
Gemini 3.6 Flash1476.1 +247.3$1.50/M66%
Gemini 3.5 Flash1475.7 +246.9$3.38/M23%
GLM 5.31475.1 +246.3$1.29/M71%
GLM 5.3 Flash1471.9 +243.1$0.237/M95%
GLM 5.21466.9 +238.1$0.998/M77%
MiMo-V2.5-Pro1464.8 +236.0$0.544/M88%
GLM 5.11462.4 +233.6$1.48/M66%
Gemini 2.5 Pro1457.8 +229.0$3.44/M21%
GPT-5.6 Sol1455.1 +226.3$4.00/M9%
Kimi K2.61454.9 +226.1$1.71/M61%
Qwen3.7 Plus1454.2 +225.4$0.560/M87%
Grok 4.51450.1 +221.3$3.00/M31%
GLM 51446.3 +217.5$0.930/M79%
Qwen3.6 Max Preview1446.3 +217.5$2.31/M47%
Kimi K2.51445.6 +216.8$0.900/M79%
DeepSeek V4 Pro 04231444.0 +215.2$1.18/M73%
Claude Sonnet 51442.2 +213.4$4.00/M9%
Gemma 4 31B1441.7 +212.9$0.153/M97%
Hy31440.6 +211.8$0.144/M97%
GLM 4.61440.5 +211.7$0.760/M83%
Inkling1439.7 +210.9$1.76/M60%
Qwen3.8 27B1439.3 +210.5$1.06/M76%
Qwen3.5 397B A17B1438.3 +209.5$1.29/M71%
Qwen3.6 Plus1436.7 +207.9$0.731/M83%
GLM 5V Turbo1436.5 +207.7$1.90/M57%
GLM 4.71435.9 +207.1$0.738/M83%
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite1435.5 +206.7$0.850/M81%
Gemma 4 26B A4B 1434.5 +205.7$0.143/M97%
MiniMax M31433.5 +204.7$0.525/M88%
DeepSeek V4 Flash 04231431.8 +203.0$0.103/M98%
GLM 4.51430.2 +201.4$1.00/M77%
GPT-5.6 Luna1429.9 +201.1$0.450/M90%
Grok 4.61429.9 +201.1$3.00/M31%
R1 05281427.5 +198.7$0.912/M79%
MiMo-V2.51427.4 +198.6$0.175/M96%
DeepSeek V3.21424.8 +196.0$0.302/M93%
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp1422.6 +193.8$0.305/M93%
GPT-5.11422.6 +193.8$3.44/M21%
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct1420.6 +191.8$0.632/M86%
Mistral Medium 3.51420.6 +191.8$3.00/M31%
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 25071419.8 +191.0$0.153/M97%
DeepSeek V3.11419.7 +190.9$0.425/M90%
Qwen3.5-122B-A10B1417.9 +189.1$0.715/M84%
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct1417.6 +188.8$0.343/M92%
Gemini 2.5 Flash1417.3 +188.5$0.850/M81%
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus1416.9 +188.1$0.453/M90%
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview1415.3 +186.5$0.563/M87%
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 25071415.1 +186.3$0.747/M83%
Qwen3 Max1413.1 +184.3$1.56/M64%
Inkling Small1412.3 +183.5$0.637/M85%
GPT-5.4 Mini1412.1 +183.3$1.69/M61%
o31409.9 +181.1$3.50/M20%
Qwen3.5-27B1408.1 +179.3$0.536/M88%
GPT-51406.1 +177.3$3.44/M21%
MiniMax M2.71404.6 +175.8$0.525/M88%
Step 3.5 Flash1403.7 +174.9$0.150/M97%
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking1400.8 +172.0$1.30/M70%
Qwen3.5-Flash1397.7 +168.9$0.114/M97%
Grok 4.31397.7 +168.9$1.56/M64%
Claude Haiku 4.51396.6 +167.8$2.00/M54%
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B1395.5 +166.7$0.547/M88%
GLM 4.5 Air1383.7 +154.9$0.310/M93%
Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 25071383.6 +154.8$0.084/M98%
GPT-4.11382.8 +154.0$3.50/M20%
Solar Pro 41377.3 +148.5$0.158/M96%
GLM 4.6V1376.5 +147.7$0.450/M90%
DeepSeek V3 03241375.0 +146.2$0.438/M90%
GPT-5 Mini1373.0 +144.2$0.688/M84%
GPT-5.4 Nano1372.9 +144.1$0.463/M89%
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking1367.8 +139.0$0.412/M91%
Qwen3 235B A22B1366.1 +137.3$0.796/M82%
gpt-oss-120b1365.9 +137.1$0.262/M94%
Nova 2 Lite1362.6 +133.8$0.850/M81%
MiniMax M2.51358.9 +130.1$0.473/M89%
Gemma 3 27B1357.7 +128.9$0.172/M96%
Mercury 21357.6 +128.8$0.375/M91%
o4 Mini1353.2 +124.4$1.93/M56%
GLM 4.7 Flash1352.2 +123.4$0.145/M97%
MiniMax M11342.7 +113.9$0.850/M81%
MiniMax M21342.1 +113.3$0.446/M90%
Trinity Large Thinking1341.8 +113.0$0.388/M91%
GPT-4.1 Mini1340.2 +111.4$0.700/M84%
Qwen3 32B1340.0 +111.2$0.130/M97%
o3 Mini High1336.5 +107.7$1.93/M56%
Gemma 3 12B1334.2 +105.4$0.075/M98%
DeepSeek V31332.4 +103.6$0.463/M89%
GPT-5 Nano1319.7 +90.9$0.138/M97%
o3 Mini1319.1 +90.3$1.93/M56%
Qwen3 30B A3B1317.0 +88.2$0.215/M95%
Granite 4.2 8B1316.8 +88.0$0.107/M98%
gpt-oss-20b1287.3 +58.5$0.036/M99%
GPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18)1286.3 +57.5$0.262/M94%
GPT-4.1 Nano1284.7 +55.9$0.175/M96%
GPT-4o (2024-08-06)1282.5 +53.7$4.38/M0%
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct1274.0 +45.2$0.155/M96%
Mistral Large 24071266.1 +37.3$3.00/M31%
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct1260.8 +32.0$0.400/M91%

Higher score, lower price, named losses

Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation.

ModelLMArenaEffective $/MYou give up
R11372.6$1.15/Mcontext
GLM 4.5V1332.9$0.900/Mcontext
Gemma 3 4B1290.7$0.063/Mtools
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct1268.9$0.370/Mcontext
Mistral Small 31233.5$0.058/Mcontext, tools
Gemini 3.8 Flash1494.7 · $1.50/MCommand R+ (08-2024)1228.8 · $4.38/MLMArena EloEffective $/M · Balanced
136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase.

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