Command A Reasoning vs DeepSeek-V3.2 Base: which model should you choose?
We compared Command A Reasoning and DeepSeek-V3.2 Base on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Command A Reasoning and DeepSeek-V3.2 Base are effectively tied on the index average; DeepSeek-V3.2 Base is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Command A Reasoning
Command A Reasoning is a multimodal model from Cohere. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $13.74 per million input tokens and $51.49 per million output tokens, and averages 80.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $13.74 / 1M
- Output
- $51.49 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 80.2
- Open weights
- No
DeepSeek-V3.2 Base
DeepSeek-V3.2 Base is a multimodal model from DeepSeek. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.05 per million input tokens and $27.10 per million output tokens, and averages 80.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.05 / 1M
- Output
- $27.10 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.2
- Open weights
- Yes
Specification comparison
| Spec | Command A Reasoning | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $13.74 | $5.05 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $51.49 | $27.10 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 128,000 | A |
| Max output | 65,536 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 80.2 | 80.2 | Tie |
| Arena Elo | 1435.9 | 1417.9 | A |
| Open weights | No | Yes | B |
Benchmark comparison
Command A Reasoning wins 7, DeepSeek-V3.2 Base wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Command A Reasoning | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 80.2 | 84.3 | 4.1 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.3 | 77.1 | 0.8 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base |
| SWE-bench Verified | 71.1 | 69.1 | 2.0 | Command A Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 83.6 | 82.8 | 0.8 | Command A Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 85.2 | 83.7 | 1.5 | Command A Reasoning |
| AIME 2025 | 74.2 | 74.3 | 0.1 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base |
| LiveCodeBench | 74.1 | 73.1 | 1.0 | Command A Reasoning |
| IFEval | 87.8 | 86.9 | 0.9 | Command A Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 83.4 | 83.5 | 0.1 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base |
| HellaSwag | 87.6 | 90.2 | 2.6 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Base |
| MMMU | 78.2 | 76.7 | 1.5 | Command A Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1435.9 | 1417.9 | 18.0 | Command A Reasoning |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Command A Reasoning costs about $23.18 per million tokens and DeepSeek-V3.2 Base costs about $10.56. DeepSeek-V3.2 Base is roughly 54% cheaper than Command A Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Command A Reasoning has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for DeepSeek-V3.2 Base. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Command A Reasoning wins 7, DeepSeek-V3.2 Base wins 5, and 0 are tied. The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 80.2.
The price picture favours DeepSeek-V3.2 Base. The context picture favours Command A Reasoning. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with DeepSeek-V3.2 Base if cost is the constraint and Command A Reasoning if context is the constraint. Test both on a sample of your own traffic before committing.
Choose Command A Reasoning if
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
- The workload needs multi-step reasoning.
Choose DeepSeek-V3.2 Base if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning.
FAQ
Is Command A Reasoning better than DeepSeek-V3.2 Base?
The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 80.2. The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Command A Reasoning wins 7 benchmarks, DeepSeek-V3.2 Base wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Command A Reasoning or DeepSeek-V3.2 Base?
DeepSeek-V3.2 Base is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.56 per million tokens, versus $23.18 for Command A Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
Command A Reasoning has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. DeepSeek-V3.2 Base has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Command A Reasoning is proprietary; DeepSeek-V3.2 Base is open weights.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with DeepSeek-V3.2 Base if cost is the constraint and Command A Reasoning if context is the constraint. Test both on a sample of your own traffic before committing.