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What is Cohere?
Cohere builds large language models delivered as an API, with a strong focus on enterprise retrieval: its Command models handle generation and chat, while its Embed and Rerank models power semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation. It emphasizes private deployment and data control for businesses.
Key features
- Command models for generation, chat, and tool use
- Embed models for multilingual semantic search
- Rerank endpoint to sharpen search and RAG relevance
- Private and VPC deployment options for enterprises
- Fine-tuning on your own data
How to get started
- Create an account at cohere.com and get a trial API key
- Call the Command endpoint for chat/generation
- Use Embed + Rerank to build retrieval over your documents
- Move to a paid or private deployment as usage grows
Use cases
- Retrieval-augmented generation over internal knowledge bases
- Semantic and multilingual search
- Enterprise chat assistants with data controls
- Classification and embeddings pipelines
Cohere vs. alternatives
| Tool | How it compares |
|---|---|
| Cohere | Enterprise-focused LLM and embedding APIs for search, RAG, and chat. |
| Anthropic API | Claude models via API, strong for long-context chat and reasoning. |
| Together AI | Hosts open models with usage-based pricing if you prefer open weights. |
FAQ
Is Cohere free to use?
Cohere's plans: Usage-based API pricing, free trial keys. Pricing and free-tier limits change over time, so check the official site above for the latest details.
What is Cohere used for?
Enterprise-focused LLM and embedding APIs for search, RAG, and chat.
Who is Cohere best for?
Cohere is a good fit for retrieval-augmented generation over internal knowledge bases, or semantic and multilingual search.
What are the alternatives to Cohere?
Commonly compared alternatives include Anthropic API and Together AI, see the comparison above for how they differ.
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TLast reviewed: 2026-08 · Reviewed by AIKetra editors · How we evaluate tools