Overview
Command and Command Light were Cohere's original instruction-following text-generation models, the foundation of the Command family that later grew into Command R, Command R+, and Command A. The lineage traces back to the beta "command-xlarge-20221108" model Cohere introduced in November 2022 — a generative model conditioned to respond well to single-statement commands. The production models were served on AWS Bedrock as cohere.command-text-v14 and cohere.command-light-text-v14, and on Oracle OCI Generative AI as cohere.command (listed at ~52B parameters) and cohere.command-light (~6B parameters).
Command is described by Cohere as "an instruction-following conversational model that performs language tasks with high quality, more reliably and with a longer context than our base generative models." Command Light is "a smaller, faster version of command — almost as capable, but a lot faster," aimed at latency-sensitive and cost-sensitive workloads. Both models share a 4,000-token (4K) context window and a 4,000-token maximum output, and both are decoder-only Transformers focused on English text generation, summarization, and classification rather than the retrieval-augmented generation and tool use that define the later Command R series.
These are legacy models. On September 15, 2025 Cohere deprecated both command and command-light (alongside command-r-03-2024 and command-r-plus-04-2024), and directs users to command-r-08-2024, command-r-plus-08-2024, or command-a-03-2025 — the last being its strongest current model. Oracle has retired the on-demand cohere.command and cohere.command-light models on OCI Generative AI, and fine-tuning for these models has been wound down. New projects should build on the current Command R or Command A models; this page documents the original generation for historical reference and migration.
| Released | 2022-11-08 |
|---|---|
| License | Proprietary |
| Weights | API only |
| Parameters | Command ~52B; Command Light ~6B (per Oracle OCI model listings) |
| Context | 4K tokens |
| Max output | 4K tokens |
| Architecture | Decoder-only Transformer, instruction-tuned for single-statement commands and conversational tasks |
| Knowledge cutoff | February 2023 (Command Light, per LLMReference) |
| Modalities | Text |
| Status | Retired / deprecated. Cohere deprecated both command and command-light on September 15, 2025 and recommends command-r-08-2024, command-r-plus-08-2024, or command-a-03-2025 instead. The models are no longer available on-demand on Oracle OCI Generative AI and are being removed from other hosting partners. |
Pricing
| Input | $1.50 / 1M tokens (Command); $0.30 / 1M tokens (Command Light) per 1M tokens |
|---|---|
| Output | $2.00 / 1M tokens (Command); $0.60 / 1M tokens (Command Light) per 1M tokens |
AWS Bedrock on-demand pricing while the models were active (Command: $0.0015/1K input, $0.0020/1K output; Command Light: $0.0003/1K input, $0.0006/1K output). Models are now deprecated/retired; pricing is historical.
Strengths
- Simple, reliable instruction following for single-statement commands and short conversational prompts
- Command Light offered notably faster, cheaper generation when full Command quality was not required
- Straightforward text generation, summarization, and classification without the complexity of tool-use or RAG orchestration
- Available across multiple clouds during its lifetime (Cohere API, AWS Bedrock, Oracle OCI Generative AI)
Best for
- Short-form copy, drafting, and conversational responses (pre-RAG generation)
- Text summarization and rewriting via the legacy generate/summarize endpoints
- Lightweight classification and content tasks where Command Light's speed and low cost mattered
- Migration reference for teams moving older command / command-light integrations to Command R or Command A
How to access
| Provider | Model ID |
|---|---|
| AWS Bedrock ↗ | cohere.command-text-v14 |
| AWS Bedrock ↗ | cohere.command-light-text-v14 |
| Oracle OCI Generative AI ↗ | cohere.command (retired) |
| Oracle OCI Generative AI ↗ | cohere.command-light (retired) |
FAQ
Are Command and Command Light still available?
No. Cohere deprecated both command and command-light on September 15, 2025, and they are no longer offered for on-demand use on Oracle OCI Generative AI. Cohere recommends migrating to command-r-08-2024, command-r-plus-08-2024, or command-a-03-2025.
What is the context window of the legacy Command models?
Both Command and Command Light have a 4,000-token (4K) context window and a 4,000-token maximum output, per Cohere's model documentation. This is far smaller than the later Command R (128K) and Command A (256K) models.
How big were Command and Command Light?
Oracle's OCI Generative AI listings describe the original Command as a ~52B-parameter model and Command Light as ~6B parameters. Cohere did not publish a detailed parameter breakdown of its own; these figures come from the OCI model pages.
What should I use instead of Command or Command Light?
For most workloads, Cohere recommends Command A (command-a-03-2025), its strongest current model, or the Command R series (command-r-08-2024 and command-r-plus-08-2024), which add long context, retrieval-augmented generation, and tool use that the legacy Command models lack.