This model is deprecated. We only continue performance benchmarking for the default 10k input token workload. Results for other workloads are historical and no longer updated.
Perplexity has launched a newer release, Sonar Reasoning Pro. We suggest considering it instead.
Sonar Reasoning Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis
Model summary
Speed
Verbosity
Sonar Reasoning is below average in intelligence when comparing to other models. The model supports text input, outputs text, and has a 127k tokens context window.
Sonar Reasoning scores 9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it below average among comparable models (median: 12).
| Reasoning | Yes This page shows the reasoning version of this model. A non-reasoning variant may also exist. |
|---|---|
| Input modality | Supports: text |
| Output modality | Supports: text |
| Context window | 127k ~191 A4 pages of size 12 Arial font |
Metrics are compared against models of the same class:
- Non-reasoning models → compared only with other non-reasoning models
- Reasoning models → compared across both reasoning and non-reasoning
- Open weights models → compared only with other open weights models of the same size class:
- Tiny: ≤4B parameters
- Small: 4B–40B parameters
- Medium: 40B–150B parameters
- Large: >150B parameters
- Proprietary models → compared across proprietary and open weights models of the same price range, using a blended 3:1 input/output price ratio:
- <$0.15 per 1M tokens
- $0.15–$1 per 1M tokens
- >$1 per 1M tokens
Speed
Intelligence
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary
Intelligence Index vs. Cost per Task
Evaluations
Agentic knowledge work, Elo
Knowledge
1 - hallucination rate
Agentic SaaS workflows
Agentic real-world work tasks, Elo
Reasoning & knowledge
Professional document reasoning, All-pass
Agentic coding & terminal use
Long context reasoning
Coding
Physics reasoning
Agentic scientific research workflows in a terminal
Agentic software engineering in open-source repositories
Quantitative analysis on spreadsheets & documents
Legal agentic work, Hallucination-Gated All-Pass Rate
Agentic business operations
Agentic interactive 3D experiences, Elo
Kubernetes incident root-cause analysis
Medical long context reasoning
Visual reasoning
Rich, varied, well-crafted language
Well-structured, scannable, answer-first
Truthful, acknowledges uncertainty, non-sycophantic
Use of filler and generic language
Intelligence Index Comparisons
Intelligence Index vs. Cost per Task
Cost
Cost per Intelligence Index Task
Cost to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output
Context Window
Context Window
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Sonar Reasoning
Sonar Reasoning was released on January 28, 2025.
Sonar Reasoning was created by Perplexity.
Sonar Reasoning scores 9 (estimated) on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it below average among other models (median: 12).
Yes, Sonar Reasoning is a reasoning model. It uses extended thinking or chain-of-thought reasoning to work through complex problems before providing an answer.
Sonar Reasoning supports text input.
Sonar Reasoning supports text output.
No, Sonar Reasoning does not support image input. It can only process text.
No, Sonar Reasoning is not multimodal. It only supports text input.
Sonar Reasoning has a context window of 130k tokens. This determines how much text and conversation history the model can process in a single request.
No, Sonar Reasoning is proprietary. The model weights are not publicly available.
Sonar Reasoning is a proprietary model and Perplexity has not disclosed the model size or parameter count.
Sonar Reasoning achieves a score of 9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. This composite benchmark evaluates models across reasoning, knowledge, mathematics, and coding.
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