Sonar Deep Research Paid vs 
GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) Paid
Sonar Deep Research vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
Sonar Deep Research — full profile › · GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) — full profile ›
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$8 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
$2 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
Sonar Deep Research vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) specs
| Spec | Sonar Deep Research | GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Perplexity | OpenAI | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 4K tokens | |
| Input price | $2/M | $1/M | |
| Output price | $8/M | $2/M | |
| Vision / multimodal | No | No | – |
| Tool / function calling | No | Yes | |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | No (API only) | – |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) is ~4.0× cheaper than Sonar Deep Research on output tokens ($2 vs $8 per M tokens).
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You need the longer 128K context window
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You want the lower output price
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
Feature comparison
| Capability | Sonar Deep Research | GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✗ | ✗ |
| Tool / function calling | ✗ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✗ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: Sonar Deep Research vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613)
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How Sonar Deep Research and GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) score
| Criterion | Sonar Deep Research | GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Context window | 3.5 | 2.0 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 2.0 | 3.5 |
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
Sonar Deep Research Paid
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...
GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) Paid
GPT-3.5 Turbo is OpenAI's fastest model. It can understand and generate natural language or code, and is optimized for chat and traditional completion tasks. Training data up to Sep 2021.
Frequently asked questions
Sonar Deep Research vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) — which is cheaper?
GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) is cheaper on output ($2/M vs $8/M).
Which has the larger context window?
Sonar Deep Research offers the larger context window (128K tokens).
Sonar Deep Research vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) for the lower output price ($2/M vs $8/M). Choose Sonar Deep Research if you need the larger 128K context window.
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