# Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Beam 1.0

> Cohere Chat scores 64.7 (B) to Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Cohere Chat API (Command models) scores 64.7 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

- Cohere Chat API (Command models): grade B, 64.7/100, rank #376 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cohere-chat.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cohere-chat.json
- Beam 1.0: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #786 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/reflection-beam.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cohere Chat API (Command models) (B)

Good for: Teams that want Command models for RAG with citations, tool use and multilingual work, and that may later move to a private deployment or Model Vault.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 64 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 67
- Security & auth, 57 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: Production keys work like trial keys on Command A+, Reasoning, Translate and Vision. The docs send production use of those models to sales or to Model Vault

### Beam 1.0 (D)

Good for: An OpenAI-compatible endpoint for a large open-weight coding and agent model, for builders who want the same model hosted or self-hosted under Apache-2.0.

Watch for: The API is a public beta with no SLA, and per-organisation rate limits and the daily allocation are not published as numbers


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cohere Chat API (Command models) | Beam 1.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 64 | 40 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +24 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 84 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 67 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 46 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 50 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 68 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.7 · B** | **53.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cohere Chat API (Command models) | Beam 1.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cohere | Reflection |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat` | `https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cohere's Commercial SaaS Agreement. The SDKs are MIT | Weights under Apache-2.0. The hosted Reflection API is a closed service under Reflection AI, Inc.'s commercial terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-04-08 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-01 |  |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Cohere Chat API (Command models).** A public OpenAPI file, Markdown twins of every docs page and SDKs in four languages make the Chat API easy for an agent to read. Production keys do not cover the four newest Command models, whose limits are set by sales, and the SaaS agreement lets Cohere share API data with third parties.

**Beam 1.0.** The Reflection API is OpenAI-compatible, with an OpenAPI document, strict structured outputs and tool calls, and error codes that say when to retry, and the weights are Apache-2.0. It is a free public beta with unpublished daily limits and no per-token price, reasoning can't be turned off, and three API incidents were posted between 14 and 16 October 2026.

## Before you call either

### Cohere Chat API (Command models)

1. Call `POST https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat` with `Authorization: bearer <key>`. `model` and `messages` are the only required fields
2. Use `command-a-03-2025`, `command-r-08-2024`, `command-r-plus-08-2024` or `command-r7b-12-2024` for production traffic. Newer variants stay at trial limits on a production key
3. Keep a trial key under 20 chat requests a minute and 1,000 calls a month, and do not use it for commercial work
4. Set `response_format` with a `json_schema` for structured output, and tell the model to produce JSON when using `json_object` without a schema
5. Ask the account Owner to turn off training under Data Controls in the dashboard before sending confidential prompts

### Beam 1.0

1. Send `reasoning_effort` `low` or `medium` for short tasks. The default is `max`, and `none` or `minimal` return `400 unsupported_value`
2. Return every assistant message with its `reasoning_content` unchanged. If a turn comes back without it, start a new conversation, since later requests fail with `missing_required_parameter`
3. Don't rely on `stop` or `seed`. Both are accepted and ignored, so truncate output in your own code
4. Honour `x-should-retry: false` on a 429. It means a daily limit is spent and `Retry-After` counts to 00:00 UTC
5. Set `max_completion_tokens` yourself on long prompts. The default budget isn't reduced to fit the prompt and includes reasoning tokens

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cohere Chat API (Command models) or Beam 1.0?

Cohere Chat API (Command models) scores 64.7 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Beam 1.0 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Beam 1.0 without installing anything?

Yes. Cohere Chat API (Command models) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat and Beam 1.0 at https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-reflection-beam.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-reflection-beam.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cohere-chat", "b": "reflection-beam"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cohere-chat reflection-beam`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cohere-chat.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json

## Other comparisons with Cohere Chat API (Command models) or Beam 1.0

- [Claude API vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Claude API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Antseed vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Antseed vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs DeepInfra](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-deepinfra.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Glimpse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-elorian-glimpse.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Gemini Developer API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-gemini-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-groq.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Muse Spark Open](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-muse-spark-open.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-openai-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Glimpse vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-reflection-beam.md)
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- [OpenRouter vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Prism Inference vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-reflection-beam.md)

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