Cohere Free Trial API Key: Limits & Rate Limits (2026)

Cohere's free option is a trial API key that is created for you when you sign up. It works with all of Cohere's models and APIs (Command chat models, Embed, Rerank, audio transcription and more), but it is capped at 1,000 API calls per month, each endpoint has its own per-minute limit, and Cohere says trial keys may not be used for production or commercial purposes. It is an evaluation key, not a free production tier. When you are ready to ship, you complete the Go to Production form and pay per use.

What the trial key includes

Cohere offers two kinds of API keys. Its rate-limit documentation describes them as evaluation (trial) keys, which are free but limited in usage, and production keys, which are paid and much less limited. The trial key gives you:

• Access to all models and APIs. Cohere's pricing documentation says anyone can use all of Cohere's models and APIs with a trial key.
• 1,000 API calls per month across endpoints. This is a count of calls, not tokens, so a long chat request and a short one count the same.
• Per-minute rate limits by endpoint, listed in the next section.
• No charge. The pricing page lists the Trial plan as free, with the key created automatically at signup.

The trial is tied to a personal account. Cohere's pricing page notes that trial accounts are personal only and you cannot add members until you join an organization.

Trial vs production rate limits

These are the limits on Cohere's rate-limit page as of October 2026. Trial limits apply to every trial key; production limits apply once you have a paid production key.

The 1,000-calls-per-month cap is the limit most people hit first. At 20 chat requests per minute you could use the whole month's allowance in under an hour of continuous testing.

Cohere also notes that production keys on newer Chat model variants, such as Command A Reasoning, behave like trial keys, including the 1,000 calls a month limit, and asks you to contact sales@cohere.com before using those models in production. For a rate-limit increase on an existing production key, Cohere points to support@cohere.com.

What 1,000 calls a month is good for

The cap is enough to evaluate Cohere properly if you plan your tests. Some realistic budgets:

• Comparing chat models: 50 prompts × 4 Command models = 200 calls, leaving 800 for iteration.
• Testing Embed on a sample corpus: Embed calls accept batches of inputs, and the per-minute limit is counted in inputs (2,000/min). Embedding 10,000 short texts in batches of 90 takes about 112 calls, instead of 10,000 calls one by one.
• Evaluating Rerank: 300 queries against your retrieval results is 300 calls. At 10 per minute that takes about 30 minutes to run.
• A demo or hackathon prototype: fine for personal demos. A public app with real users would both breach the non-commercial rule and run out of calls quickly.

Batch your Embed requests. Because the monthly cap counts calls, sending many inputs per Embed call is the single biggest way to stretch the trial.

How to get and use the trial key

1. Sign up at dashboard.cohere.com.
2. Open API Keys in the dashboard. A trial key is created automatically; copy it.
3. Store the key in an environment variable (for example `CO_API_KEY`) rather than in source code.
4. Install the SDK (`pip install cohere`) and make a test call.
5. Watch your usage in the dashboard so you know how many of your 1,000 monthly calls remain.

import cohere

co = cohere.ClientV2()  # reads CO_API_KEY
resp = co.chat(
    model="command-a-03-2025",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize our refund policy in one line."}],
)
print(resp.message.content[0].text)

Use the model name shown in Cohere's model documentation for the model you want to test; names change as new versions ship.

Moving to production

When you outgrow the trial, or want to use Cohere in a product, you need a production key. Cohere's Going Live documentation describes the process:

1. An Owner of your Cohere team completes the Go to Production form in the dashboard. Only Owners can do this.
2. You acknowledge Cohere's SaaS agreement and terms of service, and your organization confirms it has read the model limitations, model cards and data statement.
3. You answer whether your use involves any of the sensitive use cases in Cohere's usage guidelines.
4. If not, you can create and use production keys immediately. If you do declare a sensitive use case, the production key may be rate limited like a trial key until Cohere's safety team contacts you; Cohere says those reviews take no longer than 72 business hours.

Production usage is billed pay-as-you-go. Cohere's pricing page says bills are issued at the end of each calendar month or when the outstanding balance reaches $250. Only team Owners can view invoices and update payment information.

What paid usage costs

Cohere's pricing documentation says Command models are priced per token, with different rates for input and output tokens; Embed is priced on the number of tokens embedded; and Rerank is priced per search. A search is one query with up to 100 documents, and documents over 500 tokens (including the query) are split into chunks that each count as a document.

The public pricing page lists per-token prices only for some legacy models, for example:

Current models such as Command A, Command R7B and Embed are not priced on that page, so check the dashboard or ask Cohere sales before estimating production costs. Dedicated Model Vault instances are priced per hour or per month; for example Embed 5 Small is listed at $3.00/hour or $2,000/month, and Rerank 3.5 Medium at $5.00/hour or $3,250/month.

Trial key rules to take seriously

• No production or commercial use. This is stated on the pricing page. Putting a trial key behind a paid product, or behind a free product run by a business, breaks the terms even if you stay under 1,000 calls.
• Keys belong to a team. Production keys can only be created after an Owner completes the Go to Production form; regular Users can only view, create, copy and rename trial keys.
• Existing accounts can't simply be invited. Cohere's team docs say users who already have a Cohere account cannot be invited to a team through the dashboard and need to contact support to migrate.
• Newer models may stay capped. Even on a production key, newer Chat variants like Command A Reasoning keep the 1,000 calls a month limit until you arrange access with sales.

Alternatives if you need more free usage

If 1,000 calls a month is too tight, or you need something you can use commercially for free, these are the closest options on our site:

Our free AI API keys guide compares these side by side.

Common questions from developers

Does each call count once, regardless of size?

Cohere states the cap as 1,000 API calls a month. It doesn't describe any token-based weighting for the trial cap, so a call counts as a call. The per-minute Embed limit, however, is counted in inputs, not calls.

Will I be charged if I exceed the trial cap?

Cohere says trial API calls are free and bills only production usage. Once you reach the cap, you either wait for the monthly allowance to come back or move to a production key.

Can I create several trial keys to get more calls?

You can create more than one trial key on the API Keys page, but Cohere describes the 1,000-call limit as applying to trial keys; it does not say the limit multiplies with the number of keys, so don't plan around that.

Where do I check Cohere's status if calls fail?

Cohere's Going Live docs point to its status page at status.cohere.ai, which lists incidents, component status and scheduled maintenance, and lets you subscribe to updates by email or phone. Check it before assuming you have hit a trial limit, since rate-limit errors and outages look similar from client code.