Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) vs Google: Gemma 3 12B
Head-to-head API pricing and cost comparison between Cohere’s Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) and Google’s Google: Gemma 3 12B. Prices auto-refresh daily from OpenRouter.
Google: Gemma 3 12B is 98% cheaper for input tokens; Google: Gemma 3 12B also wins on output tokens.
Side-by-side comparison
| Spec | Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) | Google: Gemma 3 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $2.50 | $0.04 |
| Cached input (per 1M) | — | — |
| Output price (per 1M) | $10.00 | $0.13 |
| Batch input (per 1M) | — | — |
| Batch output (per 1M) | — | — |
| Reasoning price (per 1M) | — | — |
| Context window | 128K | 131K |
| Vision support | No | Yes |
| Caching support | No | No |
| Batch API | No | No |
| Reasoning capability | No | No |
Monthly cost at volume
Estimated monthly API spend at common production traffic levels (input/output tokens per request shown).
| Volume | Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) | Google: Gemma 3 12B | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
1K req/day 500in / 200out tokens | $97.50 | $1.38 | $96.12 Google: Gemma 3 12B wins |
10K req/day 1500in / 500out tokens | $2,625 | $37.50 | $2,588 Google: Gemma 3 12B wins |
100K req/day 3000in / 800out tokens | $46,500 | $672.00 | $45,828 Google: Gemma 3 12B wins |
1M req/day 8000in / 2000out tokens | $1,200,000 | $17,400 | $1,182,600 Google: Gemma 3 12B wins |
Adjust input/output token counts, request volume, batch & cached pricing.
Related comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) or Google: Gemma 3 12B?
For input tokens, Google: Gemma 3 12B is roughly 98% cheaper at $0.04/1M vs $2.50/1M. For output tokens, Google: Gemma 3 12B wins at $0.13/1M. Real-world cost depends on your input/output ratio — use the calculator to model your actual workload.
What’s the context window difference?
Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) has a context window of 128K tokens. Google: Gemma 3 12B offers 131K tokens. Larger context windows are valuable for long documents, RAG pipelines, and multi-turn conversations — but they come with higher input-token bills if you fill them every request.
Should I use Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) or Google: Gemma 3 12B?
Choose Cohere: Command R+ (08-2024) if you’re already on the Cohere stack, want broad ecosystem support, or prefer its feature set. Choose Google: Gemma 3 12B for Google’s ecosystem, native vision input, or its cheaper input tokens. Run a small benchmark on your own prompts before committing — price is only one axis.
How are these prices kept current?
Prices are pulled directly from OpenRouter’s public models API once every 24 hours via a Convex cron job, then normalized to per-1M-token figures. Last refresh: Apr 21, 2026.