AI Models · Paid vs Paid

o3 Paid vs Sonar Deep Research Paid

o3 vs Sonar Deep Research compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

o3PaidOpenAI
$2 /M input
$8 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window200K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Sonar Deep ResearchPaidPerplexity
$2 /M input
$8 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window128K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostNo
Choose o3 for the lower output price ($8/M vs $8/M). It also gives you the larger 200K context window.

o3 vs Sonar Deep Research specs

Speco3Sonar Deep ResearchWinner
MakerOpenAIPerplexity
TypeProprietaryProprietary
Context window200K tokens128K tokenso3
Input price$2/M$2/M= Tie
Output price$8/M$8/M= Tie
Vision / multimodalYesNoo3
Tool / function callingYesNoo3
Self-hostableNo (API only)No (API only)
LicenseProprietaryProprietary

Price gap & when to choose each

Choose o3 if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You need the longer 200K context window
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure
Choose Sonar Deep Research if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capabilityo3Sonar Deep Research
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: o3 vs Sonar Deep Research

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

o3
Sonar Deep Research
Intelligence index
20.2
Math index
88.3
GPQA
82.7%
MMLU-Pro
85.3%
Humanity's Last Exam
20.1%
Long Context Reasoning
74.7%
LiveCodeBench
80.8%
MATH-500
99.2%
AIME
90.3%
AIME 2025
88.3%
IFBench
71.4%
τ²-Bench
80.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard
37.1%
Speed
114.5 tok/s
Latency
6.58s
Intelligence per $
5.8

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How o3 and Sonar Deep Research score

🏆 Best value & openness: o3 (3.0 vs 2.3 / 5)
Criteriono3Sonar Deep Research
Cost-efficiency3.53.5
Context window4.03.5
Openness1.51.5
Self-hosting1.01.0
Multimodality5.02.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

o3 Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

o3 is a well-rounded and powerful model across domains. It sets a new standard for math, science, coding, and visual reasoning tasks. It also excels at technical writing and instruction-following....

Sonar Deep Research Paid

Perplexity · Proprietary

Sonar Deep Research is a research-focused model designed for multi-step retrieval, synthesis, and reasoning across complex topics. It autonomously searches, reads, and evaluates sources, refining its approach as it gathers...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
o3 Proo3 (batch)o3 Minio3 Mini (batch)o3 Mini High

Frequently asked questions

o3 vs Sonar Deep Research — which is cheaper?

o3 is cheaper on output ($8/M vs $8/M).

Which has the larger context window?

o3 offers the larger context window (200K tokens).

o3 vs Sonar Deep Research — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose o3 for the lower output price ($8/M vs $8/M). It also gives you the larger 200K context window.

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