AI Models · Paid vs Paid

Sonar Pro Paid vs GPT-5.6 Luna Paid

Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.6 Luna 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.

Sonar ProPaidPerplexity
$3 /M input
$15 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window200K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
GPT-5.6 LunaPaidOpenAI
$0.2 /M input
$1.2 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window1.1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose GPT-5.6 Luna for the lower output price ($1.2/M vs $15/M). It also gives you the larger 1.1M context window.

Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.6 Luna specs

SpecSonar ProGPT-5.6 LunaWinner
MakerPerplexityOpenAI
TypeProprietaryProprietary
Context window200K tokens1.1M tokensGPT-5.6 Luna
Input price$3/M$0.2/MGPT-5.6 Luna
Output price$15/M$1.2/MGPT-5.6 Luna
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingNoYesGPT-5.6 Luna
Self-hostableNo (API only)No (API only)
LicenseProprietaryProprietary

Price gap & when to choose each

13×cheaper per output token

GPT-5.6 Luna is ~13× cheaper than Sonar Pro on output tokens ($1.2 vs $15 per M tokens).

Choose Sonar Pro if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure
Choose GPT-5.6 Luna if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You need the longer 1.1M context window
  • You want the lower output price
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilitySonar ProGPT-5.6 Luna
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.6 Luna

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

Sonar Pro
GPT-5.6 Luna
Intelligence index
7.6
37.5
GPQA
57.8%
91.1%
MMLU-Pro
75.5%
Humanity's Last Exam
6.6%
39.5%
LiveCodeBench
27.5%
MATH-500
74.5%
AIME
29%
Coding index
71.4
Long Context Reasoning
83.7%
SciCode
53.6%
τ-Bench Banking
31.1%
Terminal-Bench
80.9%
Speed
0 tok/s
121.3 tok/s
Latency
0s
96.08s
Intelligence per $
83.3

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Sonar Pro and GPT-5.6 Luna score

🏆 Best value & openness: GPT-5.6 Luna (3.4 vs 2.6 / 5)
CriterionSonar ProGPT-5.6 Luna
Cost-efficiency3.04.5
Context window4.05.0
Openness1.51.5
Self-hosting1.01.0
Multimodality3.55.0

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

Sonar Pro Paid

Perplexity · Proprietary

Note: Sonar Pro pricing includes Perplexity search pricing. See [details here](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/pricing#detailed-pricing-breakdown-for-sonar-reasoning-pro-and-sonar-pro) For enterprises seeking more advanced capabilities, t

GPT-5.6 Luna Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

GPT-5.6 Luna is a fast, cost-efficient model in OpenAI's GPT-5.6 series. It is suited for high-volume, latency-sensitive tasks such as chat, classification, and lightweight agentic workflows, providing capable reasoning for...

Frequently asked questions

Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.6 Luna — which is cheaper?

GPT-5.6 Luna is cheaper on output ($1.2/M vs $15/M).

Which has the larger context window?

GPT-5.6 Luna offers the larger context window (1.1M tokens).

Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.6 Luna — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose GPT-5.6 Luna for the lower output price ($1.2/M vs $15/M). It also gives you the larger 1.1M context window.

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