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Cohere vs Particle.AI
Particle.AI serves a few cheap Flash-class open models with 1M context via Vercel AI Gateway. Cohere is an established enterprise vendor with private installs.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Cohere vs Particle.AI: key differences
Particle.AI competes on price and context length. Through Vercel AI Gateway it lists GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.10 in and $0.40 out, DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 at $0.14 in and $0.28 out, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.25 in and $1 out with about 157 tokens per second, all with 1M context and cache reads at $0.03 per million. Cohere's Command A costs $2.50 in and $10 out with 256K context, and Command A+ has 128K. Command R7B is cheap at $0.0375 in but is a much smaller model. For high-volume calls on Flash-class open models, Particle is far cheaper per token.
Particle is a very early company with a tiny catalog, little public track record and some slow listings, such as 3.5 seconds of latency on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. It works best as a price-optimized route inside a multi-provider gateway. Cohere is an established vendor selling to banks and governments, with Embed 4, Rerank 4, Aya and Transcribe, availability on Bedrock, Azure and OCI, and private VPC or on-prem deployment with fine-tuning. Particle offers no customization. Teams already on Vercel AI Gateway can try Particle with no new contract; teams with procurement and security reviews will get further with Cohere.
What Cohere and Particle.AI do
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.
Example models: Command A+, Command A, Embed 4, Rerank 4
Full Cohere profile
Particle.AI
Particle AI is an early San Francisco infrastructure startup with a mission to make intelligence as cheap and abundant as electricity. The team works on post-training, inference optimization and distributed systems, all aimed at pushing down cost per unit of intelligence. It is still hiring its founding team and works fully in person. Public detail about funding and founders is thin as of this writing.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash
Full Particle.AI profileShould you choose Cohere or Particle.AI?
Cohere
Choose Cohere for
- Enterprise security and procurement reviews
- On-prem RAG with reranking
- Fine-tuned models on private data
Particle.AI
Choose Particle.AI for
- Cheap high-volume Flash model calls
- 1M-token context at low prices
- A fallback route in Vercel AI Gateway
Cohere vs Particle.AI at a glance
| Attribute | Cohere |  Particle.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Closed, plus open Command A+ | Open weights |
| Flagship models | Command A+, Command A, Embed 4, Rerank 4 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Speed | 375 tok/s on Command A+ W4A4, per Cohere | ~157 tok/s on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Price | $0.0375–$2.50 in, $0.15–$10 out per 1M | $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash) |
| Customization | Enterprise fine-tuning, incl. private | Unknown |
| Deployment | API, Bedrock, Azure, OCI, VPC, on-prem | Via Vercel AI Gateway |
| Long context | 256K on Command A; 128K on A+ | 1M |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Cohere and Particle.AI?
Particle.AI serves a few cheap Flash-class open models with 1M context via Vercel AI Gateway. Cohere is an established enterprise vendor with private installs.
When should I choose Cohere over Particle.AI?
Enterprise security and procurement reviews; On-prem RAG with reranking; Fine-tuned models on private data.
When should I choose Particle.AI over Cohere?
Cheap high-volume Flash model calls; 1M-token context at low prices; A fallback route in Vercel AI Gateway.
Is Cohere or Particle.AI cheaper?
Cohere: $0.0375–$2.50 in, $0.15–$10 out per 1M. Particle.AI: $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, Cohere or Particle.AI?
Cohere: 256K on Command A; 128K on A+. Particle.AI: 1M.
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