Sonar Pro Paid vs Sonar Pro Search Paid
Sonar Pro vs Sonar Pro Search compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
Sonar Pro — full profile › · Sonar Pro Search — full profile ›
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$15 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
$15 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
Sonar Pro vs Sonar Pro Search specs
| Spec | Sonar Pro | Sonar Pro Search | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Perplexity | Perplexity | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens | = Tie |
| Input price | $3/M | $3/M | = Tie |
| Output price | $15/M | $15/M | = Tie |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | No | No | – |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | No (API only) | – |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
Feature comparison
| Capability | Sonar Pro | Sonar Pro Search |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✗ | ✗ |
| 1M+ context window | ✗ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: Sonar Pro vs Sonar Pro Search
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How Sonar Pro and Sonar Pro Search score
| Criterion | Sonar Pro | Sonar Pro Search |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Context window | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 3.5 | 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 Pro Paid
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
Sonar Pro Search Paid
Exclusively available on the OpenRouter API, Sonar Pro's new Pro Search mode is Perplexity's most advanced agentic search system. It is designed for deeper reasoning and analysis. Pricing is based...
Frequently asked questions
Sonar Pro vs Sonar Pro Search — which is cheaper?
Sonar Pro is cheaper on output ($15/M vs $15/M).
Which has the larger context window?
Sonar Pro offers the larger context window (200K tokens).
Sonar Pro vs Sonar Pro Search — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose Sonar Pro for the lower output price ($15/M vs $15/M). It also gives you the larger 200K context window.
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