Cohere Command A 111B on H800 80GB SXM (80GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput
Cohere Command A 111B (111B total, 111B active, Dense GQA) uses 63.92 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 65.75 GiB total at 8K context and 67.25 GiB at 32K on H800 80GB SXM (~31.5 tok/s decode).
Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration
Production Launch Commands
llama-server -hf CohereForAI/c4ai-command-a-03-2025:Q4_K_M \ --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn
vllm serve CohereForAI/c4ai-command-a-03-2025 \ --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92
Cloud GPU Comparison & Rent-vs-Buy TCO
Verified public rates across RunPod, Vast.ai, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.
| Provider | Recommended Instance | Total VRAM | Hourly Rate | Monthly at Selected Hours | Billing Mode | Deploy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RunPod | 1x A100 80GB SXM (Community Cloud · PCIe) | 80 GB | $1.19 / hr | $144.70 / mo | Per-second | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vast.ai | 1x A100 80GB SXM (Verified Host · SXM4) | 80 GB | $0.44 / hr | $53.75 / mo | Spot / On-demand | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vultr ($300 Free Credit*) | 1x A100 80GB SXM (Dedicated Instance · $300 Credit*) | 80 GB | $2.40 / hr | $291.48 / mo | Hourly | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vultr Cloud GPU | 1x A100 80GB SXM (Dedicated Instance) | 80 GB | $2.40 / hr | $291.48 / mo | Hourly | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| DigitalOcean | 1x Instinct MI300X 192GB (Dedicated Instance) | 192 GB | $2.59 / hr | $314.94 / mo | Per-second | Deploy GPU ↗ |
Rates reflect public listings on the verification date and fluctuate with regional inventory.
Fine-Tuning VRAM Requirements (QLoRA / LoRA / Full) — Cohere Command A 111B
Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook
Quick Hardware Verdict
H800 80GB SXM (80GB physical, 76 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) Cohere Command A 111B at 8K context using 65.75 GiB with 10.25 GiB of safe headroom (~31.5 tok/s single-stream decode).
KV Cache & Runtime Tuning
Cohere Command A 111B uses Dense GQA (111B total, 111B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 1.25 GiB to 2.75 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 1.37 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 65.88 GiB).
VRAM Scaling Across Context Windows (4K to 128K, 4-bit Weights)
Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — Cohere Command A 111B @ 8K
| Quantization Format | Weights (GiB) | KV Cache | Total VRAM (GiB) | Decode Speed | Compatibility (H800 80GB SXM) | Recommended GPU | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (BF16) | 206.75 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 208.58 GiB (223.96 GB) | ~0.8 tok/s | Exceeds Available GPU Memory | Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB) | Official checkpoint size |
| FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0) | 109.84 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 111.67 GiB (119.9 GB) | ~1.6 tok/s | Exceeds Available GPU Memory | Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) | Config-derived formula |
| GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K) | 84.77 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 86.6 GiB (92.99 GB) | ~6.1 tok/s | Exceeds Available GPU Memory | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Config-derived formula |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M) | 74.16 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 75.99 GiB (81.59 GB) | ~27.3 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Config-derived formula |
| Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M) | 63.92 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 65.75 GiB (70.6 GB) | ~31.5 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Config-derived formula |
| GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS) | 55.83 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 57.66 GiB (61.91 GB) | ~35.9 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Config-derived formula |
| GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M) | 51.32 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 53.15 GiB (57.07 GB) | ~39 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Config-derived formula |
| GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL) | 36.82 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 38.65 GiB (41.5 GB) | ~53.5 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | A40 48GB (48GB) | Config-derived formula |
Technical Specifications & FAQ
Does Cohere Command A 111B fit on H800 80GB SXM (80GB)?
In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, Cohere Command A 111B requires 65.75 GiB total GPU memory (63.92 GiB weights + 1.25 GiB KV cache + 0.58 GiB runtime buffers) against 76 GiB usable on H800 80GB SXM, delivering ~31.5 tok/s decode.
How much VRAM does Cohere Command A 111B need at 32K context?
At 32,768 context tokens, Cohere Command A 111B (Dense GQA) allocates 2.75 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 67.25 GiB (72.21 GB decimal).