Methods, systems, and devices for commanded device states for a memory system are described. For example, a memory system may be configured with different device states that are each associated with a respective allocation of resources (e.g., feature sets) for operations of the memory system. Resource allocations corresponding to the different device states may be associated with different combinations of memory management configurations, error control configurations, trim parameters, degrees of parallelism, or endurance configurations, among other parameters of the memory system, which may support different tradeoffs between performance characteristics of the memory system. A host system may be configured to evaluate various parameters of operating the host system, and to transmit commands for a memory system to enter a desired device state of the memory system.