Command A Reasoning is Cohere's reasoning tier, running on a 256K tokens context window at $2.50 / $10 per Mtok (input / output). Inside Atlas, Command A Reasoning is the reasoning option for teams that need the model inside their own infrastructure rather than behind someone else's API. Reasoning is available under an on-prem or VPC deployment, which the frontier reasoning models (GPT-5.5 Pro, Claude Fable 5) do not offer, and it carries the same $2.50 / $10 rate as the non-reasoning Command A tier, so reasoning costs no premium.
Why is Command A Reasoning the only on-prem reasoning option?
Command A Reasoning makes reasoning available under an on-prem or VPC deployment, which the frontier reasoning models, GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5, do not offer. That single property is why Command A Reasoning appears on an Atlas shortlist at $2.50 / $10 per Mtok.
Reasoning models are the hardest capability to obtain inside a network boundary. GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5 are API-only, so teams under an air-gap or strict data residency policy simply cannot run them. Command A Reasoning can be deployed into your own infrastructure, which turns a hard no into a workable yes. For air-gapped work, point the Cohere provider's `baseURL` at your on-prem deployment in atlas.json, and Atlas will drive Command A Reasoning through that endpoint. Combined with Atlas building its code index using local Ollama embeddings, the entire loop can stay inside your boundary.
Does Command A Reasoning cost more than the non-reasoning tier?
Command A Reasoning costs $2.50 / $10 per Mtok (input / output), the same rate as the non-reasoning Command A tier, so reasoning carries no price premium. That is unusual, since most providers charge substantially more for a reasoning tier than for their standard model.
Pricing parity is a real advantage of Command A Reasoning. Across the industry, reasoning tiers command a premium over standard tiers, so choosing reasoning is a budget decision as well as a capability one. On Cohere, Command A Reasoning matches the non-reasoning Command A rate at $2.50 / $10 per Mtok, which means you can leave Atlas on the reasoning tier and not watch the meter. In practice that suits the Atlas plan agent, which drafts a plan in a read-only plan agent and asks before switching to a build agent. Reasoning during planning is where the value concentrates, and with Command A Reasoning it is free of surcharge.
How much context does Command A Reasoning give Atlas?
Command A Reasoning offers a 256K tokens context window, double Command A Plus's 128K, on Cohere's privately deployable stack. Inside Atlas that doubling is meaningful, because reasoning over a large retrieved result set is exactly the workload that runs out of window first.
Context is where Command A Reasoning improves most clearly on Command A Plus: 256K tokens instead of 128K, on the same privately deployable stack. Atlas searches code with hybrid semantic and keyword retrieval fused by reciprocal rank fusion, and indexes code by AST declarations using tree-sitter, not blind line windows, so what fills the window is dense, relevant declarations. A reasoning model needs room to hold both the retrieved evidence and its own chain of thought, and Command A Reasoning's 256K window gives Atlas twice the headroom of Command A Plus for exactly that.
Where does Command A Reasoning fall short?
Command A Reasoning's reasoning quality trails GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5 on the hardest problems. Cohere's coding evaluation coverage is also thin compared to the Anthropic, OpenAI, and Qwen lines, so there is less public evidence about how Command A Reasoning behaves in an agent loop.
Two limits define the honest case against Command A Reasoning. Quality: on the hardest problems it sits behind GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5, which is the price of getting reasoning you can deploy yourself. Evidence: Cohere's coding evaluation coverage is thin next to the Anthropic, OpenAI, and Qwen lines, so you are relying on your own trials more than on published results. Atlas gives you controls for that uncertainty, since every Atlas tool call is permission-gated against allow, ask, and deny rules before it runs, and Atlas computes a unified diff for every file edit and surfaces it for approval before writing.
When should you pick a different model than Command A Reasoning?
Pick a different model than Command A Reasoning when you can send code to a public API and you want the strongest reasoning available. GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5 lead Command A Reasoning on the hardest problems, and coding-specialized lines have far deeper evaluation coverage.
Command A Reasoning is a deployment-constrained choice, and outside that constraint it is rarely the top pick. If your policy permits hosted inference, the frontier reasoning models will outperform Command A Reasoning on the hardest problems, and coding-specialized models will outperform it in an Atlas build loop. If your policy does not permit hosted inference, Command A Reasoning is close to the only way to get a reasoning model into an Atlas agent loop at all, at $2.50 / $10 per Mtok with a 256K window and no reasoning surcharge. Atlas lets you switch the active model and provider on the fly, so a mixed policy across repositories is workable.
Setup
- 01Set `COHERE_API_KEY` in your environment so Atlas can authenticate against Cohere.
- 02Run `atlas models cohere` to list the Command lineup.
- 03Choose Command A Reasoning from `/models` in the Atlas TUI.
- 04For air-gapped work, point the Cohere provider's `baseURL` at your on-prem deployment in atlas.json.
- 05Use Command A Reasoning on the Atlas plan agent, where reasoning pays off most and pricing carries no premium.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Command A Reasoning cost per million tokens?
- Command A Reasoning costs $2.50 / $10 per Mtok (input / output). That is the same rate as the non-reasoning Command A tier, so reasoning carries no price premium.
- Can I run a reasoning model on-prem?
- Yes, with Command A Reasoning. Reasoning is available under an on-prem or VPC deployment, which the frontier reasoning models GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5 do not offer.
- What is Command A Reasoning's context window?
- Command A Reasoning has a 256K tokens context window, double Command A Plus's 128K, on the same privately deployable Cohere stack.
- How do I configure Atlas for an air-gapped Cohere deployment?
- Point the Cohere provider's `baseURL` at your on-prem deployment in atlas.json, and set `COHERE_API_KEY` in your environment. Then choose Command A Reasoning from `/models`.
- Is Command A Reasoning as strong as GPT-5.5 Pro?
- No. Command A Reasoning's reasoning quality trails GPT-5.5 Pro and Claude Fable 5 on the hardest problems. Its advantage is that it can run inside your own infrastructure.
- Command A Reasoning vs Command A Plus: what is the difference?
- Command A Reasoning adds reasoning and doubles the context window to 256K against Command A Plus's 128K, at the same $2.50 / $10 per Mtok rate.
- How do I see the Cohere models Atlas can use?
- Run `atlas models cohere` to list the Command lineup. Anything that resolves there will also appear in the `/models` dialog.
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