Sonar Deep Research vs o3
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by Perplexity
|
by OpenAI
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current reasoning | Current reasoning |
| Released | Apr 1, 2025 | Apr 16, 2025 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00/Mtok | $2.00/Mtok |
| Output | $8.00/Mtok | $8.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $3.50/Mtok | $3.50/Mtok |
| Cached input | — | $0.500/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
text
|
textimage
|
| Benchmarks sources: Perplexity announcement (Deep Research agent) / Artificial Analysis | ||
| Humanity's Last Exam | 21.1 vendor | — |
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | — | -15.6 |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Perplexity — $2.00/$8.00/Mtok
|
OpenAI — $2.00/$8.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Sonar Deep Research | o3 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $3.5 | $3.5 | $0 (0%) |
| 10M tokens | $35 | $35 | $0 (0%) |
| 100M tokens | $350 | $350 | $0 (0%) |
| 1000M tokens | $3500 | $3500 | $0 (0%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Sonar Deep Research if…
- this pairing gives Sonar Deep Research no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
Pick o3 if…
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.500/Mtok — 75% off its list input price, a discount Sonar Deep Research doesn't offer
Try Sonar Deep Research on Perplexity
The cheaper option here — Sonar Deep Research costs $3.50/Mtok blended on Perplexity.
Summary
Sonar Deep Research by Perplexity costs $2.00/Mtok input and $8.00/Mtok output, with a 200K-token context window. It supports text input.
o3 by OpenAI costs $2.00/Mtok input and $8.00/Mtok output, with a 200K-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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