Sonar
Perplexity’s Sonar is a lightweight search model with 127K context, live web search on every call, and inline citations for web-grounded answers.
Model Overview
Capabilities, design details, and architectural traits
Sonar - Lightweight Search Model with Built-In Web Search
Sonar is Perplexity’s lightweight search model for web-grounded answers. Perplexity positions it as the base tier of the Sonar API family, optimized for fast, citation-backed responses.
Operating Pattern
Sonar is intended for high-volume queries where cited answers matter more than deep reasoning. Perplexity also notes that it is optimized for answer quality and user experience, and that it can be used through the Sonar API.
Deployment Notes
The official Sonar API supports streaming, tools, search options, and OpenAI-compatible usage.
Benchmark Performance
Independent evaluations · Artificial Analysis
Accuracy & Capability Details
Compare Models Side-by-Side
Evaluate specifications, pricing, and independent benchmark indices
| Model Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General Info | |||
| Provider | Perplexity | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release Date | January 21, 2025 | September 22, 2026 | September 28, 2026 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | - | - | Jun 2026 |
| Context & Limits | |||
| Context Window | 127K | 1M Best Context Window | 1M Best Context Window |
| Pricing (per 1M tokens) | |||
| Input Pricing | Free Best Input Pricing | $4 | $2 |
| Output Pricing | Free Best Output Pricing | $20 | $10 |
| Modalities | |||
| Inputs | textimage | textimagefile | textimagefile |
| Outputs | text | text | text |
| Benchmarks (0-100) | |||
| Intelligence Index | 7.7 | 57.6 Best Intelligence Index | 56.0 |
| Coding Index | - | - | - |
| Agentic Index | - | - | - |
Humanity's Last Exam
Extremely difficult logical reasoning and knowledge.
SciCode Benchmark
Scientific coding and mathematical modeling.
Long Context Reasoning
Logical reasoning over long context windows.
Independent evaluation data provided by Artificial Analysis. To view the latest benchmarks and full details, visit their official site.
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