Sonar API pricing
Perplexity · Budget price tier · Proprietary · released 2025-01. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $200.00 on Sonar; the next cheaper model in the Budget price tier for this workload, Relace Apply 3, does it for $190.00. Sonar has held the same list price since 2026-08-15 and is the 137th cheapest of 160 models in the Budget price tier. Only one host, Perplexity, sells it, so there is no second price to shop. No Arena score is published for it, so it carries no Efficiency score and cannot hold the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $1.00 per 1M tokens
- Output: $1.00 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: Not published
- Context window: 127K tokens
- Arena ELO: Not published
Market position
On blended price ($1.00 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 14% of models in the Budget price tier: 137th cheapest of 160. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 55% of priced text models in the catalogue: 137th cheapest of 303. No Arena score has been published for Sonar, so this page does not rank it on quality and OptimNow's quality bars do not apply to it. 77 of the 160 models we list in the Budget price tier carry one. An unranked model is unmeasured, not poor: the benchmark needs votes, and a recent release has not had time to collect them.
Licence, size and capabilities
Sonar is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token. Its parameter count is not published. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision. Filling its 127K context window once costs $0.127 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 1 host. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Perplexity is the only host with a published rate, $1.00 input / $1.00 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity (model maker, price we quote) | $1.00 | $1.00 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where Perplexity publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $200 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $280 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $1.1K |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $430 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $500 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $210 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $270 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $900 |
Price history
Sonar has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $1.00 input / $1.00 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
Alternatives to Sonar
Sonar carries no Arena score, so this page cannot place it against models of comparable quality. The alternatives below are its nearest neighbours on price in the Budget price tier.
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Qwen3.7 Plus (Alibaba) at $0.992 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: Hy4 (Tencent) at $1.0004 blended, under 1% more.
Other models from Perplexity
Perplexity has 3 other models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Sonar Reasoning Pro: $2.00 / $8.00
- Sonar Pro: $3.00 / $15.00
- Sonar Pro Search: $3.00 / $15.00
All 4 Perplexity models and prices
Common questions about Sonar pricing
- How much does Sonar cost?
- Sonar costs $1.00 per 1M input tokens and $1.00 per 1M output tokens. That is the model maker's own rate (Perplexity). Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for Sonar?
- Perplexity is the only host with a published rate, $1.00 input / $1.00 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does Sonar offer batch or cached pricing?
- No. Neither a batch rate nor a prompt-cache rate is published for Sonar as of 2026-11-12.
- What would Sonar cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $200 on Sonar at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can Sonar be self-hosted?
- No, as far as this site records. Sonar is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token.
- Has the price of Sonar changed?
- Sonar has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $1.00 input / $1.00 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
For what the scores, the Efficiency figure and the quality bars on this page mean: how the models are scored.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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