# Cohere vs Dolphin

> Cohere sells enterprise models built to run in a private cloud or on-prem. Dolphin serves one cheap open model on a decentralized consumer GPU network.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/cohere-vs-dolphin · By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 11, 2026

## How they compare

Cohere offers Command A+ under Apache 2.0, Command A at $2.50 in and $10 out, Embed 5 and Rerank 4, on its API, Bedrock, Azure, OCI, any VPC or on-prem. Dolphin's API launched in October 2026 with one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at $0.01 in and $0.07 out per million, served on idle consumer GPUs. Requests are encrypted end to end and nodes cannot log them, but there is no published speed, context or SLA.

Cohere is built for banks, governments and large enterprises that need control over where data goes. Dolphin is for cheap background calls and uncensored models, and its crypto wallet and Telegram signup will not clear most procurement teams.

## What each one does

### Cohere

Cohere is a Toronto-based lab that sells models and platforms to banks, governments and large enterprises rather than consumers. Its generative line is the Command family. Command A+, released May 20, 2026, is a 218B-parameter mixture-of-experts model with 25B active, published under Apache 2.0 with a 128K context window, and it combines reasoning, vision, translation and tool use in one set of weights. Command A has a 256K window and lists at $2.50 in and $10 out per million tokens, while Command R7B costs $0.0375 in. June 2026 added North Mini Code, a 30B Apache 2.0 coding model, and the lineup also includes Aya multilingual models and Transcribe for speech.

### Dolphin

Dolphin began in 2023 as Eric Hartford's series of open-source, uncensored fine-tunes, trained to drop the refusals and baked-in guidelines of their base models so that the developer sets the rules through the system prompt. Current releases include Dolphin Llama 3.1 8B and Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition, built with Venice, and the project publishes nearly 100 models on Hugging Face. It also runs a chat app, a Telegram bot and a synthetic data service that generates answers to commonly refused prompts.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Cohere for

- Regulated enterprises needing on-prem
- Retrieval with Embed and Rerank
- Fine-tuning inside your own network

### Choose Dolphin for

- Very cheap background calls
- Uncensored models
- Jobs that tolerate variable latency

## At a glance

| Attribute | Cohere | Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Closed, plus open Command A+ | Open weights, uncensored fine-tunes |
| Flagship models | Command A+, Command A, Embed 5, Rerank 4 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B |
| Speed | 375 tok/s on Command A+ W4A4, per Cohere | - |
| Price | $0.0375–$2.50 in, $0.15–$10 out per 1M | $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | Enterprise fine-tuning, incl. private | Own uncensored fine-tunes |
| Deployment | API, Bedrock, Azure, OCI, VPC, on-prem | Decentralized serverless API |
| Long context | 256K on Command A; 128K on A+ | - |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Cohere and Dolphin?

Cohere sells enterprise models built to run in a private cloud or on-prem. Dolphin serves one cheap open model on a decentralized consumer GPU network.

### When should I choose Cohere over Dolphin?

Regulated enterprises needing on-prem; Retrieval with Embed and Rerank; Fine-tuning inside your own network.

### When should I choose Dolphin over Cohere?

Very cheap background calls; Uncensored models; Jobs that tolerate variable latency.

### Is Cohere or Dolphin cheaper?

Cohere: $0.0375–$2.50 in, $0.15–$10 out per 1M. Dolphin: $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Cohere](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-cohere.md), [Subconscious vs Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-dolphin.md).

Full profiles: [Cohere](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/cohere.md), [Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/dolphin.md).