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Perplexity: Models Intelligence, Performance & Price

Analysis of Perplexity's models across key metrics including quality, price, output speed, latency, context window & more. This analysis is intended to support you in choosing the best model provided by Perplexity for your use-case.

Perplexity

Most Intelligent

Intelligence index

Total 2 models

Fastest

#1
Sonar ProSonar Pro
151 t/s
#2
SonarSonar
142 t/s

Output speed

Total 2 models

Lowest Price

#1
SonarSonar
$1.00
#2
Sonar ProSonar Pro
$6.00

Blended price (per 1M tokens)

Total 2 models

Perplexity offers 2 models, each with different intelligence, performance, and pricing characteristics. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across models.

  • For output speed, the fastest models are Sonar Pro (151 t/s), Sonar (142 t/s).
  • For latency, Sonar Pro (1.59s), Sonar (1.64s) offer the lowest time to first token.
  • For pricing, Sonar ($1.00), Sonar Pro ($6.00) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens.
  • For context window size, Sonar Pro (200k), Sonar (127k) support the largest context windows on Perplexity.
Intelligence
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index; Higher is better
No data available
Speed
Output Tokens per Second; Higher is better
Price
USD per 1M Tokens; Lower is better

Navigation

Intelligence EvaluationsContext WindowJSON Mode & Function CallingPricingPerformance SummarySpeedLatencyEnd-to-End Response Time

Intelligence Evaluations

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index; Higher is better
No data available

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.0 includes: GDPval-AA, 𝜏²-Bench Telecom, Terminal-Bench Hard, SciCode, AA-LCR, AA-Omniscience, IFBench, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them.

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

Intelligence Evaluations

Intelligence evaluations measured independently by Artificial Analysis; Higher is better
Results claimed by AI Lab (not yet independently verified)
GDPval-AA (Agentic Real-World Work Tasks, (ELO-500)/2000)
No data available
Terminal-Bench Hard (Agentic Coding & Terminal Use)
No data available
𝜏²-Bench Telecom (Agentic Tool Use)
No data available
AA-LCR (Long Context Reasoning)
No data available
AA-Omniscience Accuracy (Knowledge)
No data available
AA-Omniscience Non-Hallucination Rate (1 - Hallucination Rate)
No data available
Humanity's Last Exam (Reasoning & Knowledge)
GPQA Diamond (Scientific Reasoning)
SciCode (Coding)
IFBench (Instruction Following)
No data available
CritPt (Physics Reasoning)
No data available
MMMU Pro (Visual Reasoning)
No data available

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.0 includes: GDPval-AA, 𝜏²-Bench Telecom, Terminal-Bench Hard, SciCode, AA-LCR, AA-Omniscience, IFBench, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them.

Intelligence vs. Price

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index; Price: USD per 1M Tokens
Most attractive quadrant

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.0 includes: GDPval-AA, 𝜏²-Bench Telecom, Terminal-Bench Hard, SciCode, AA-LCR, AA-Omniscience, IFBench, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them.

Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).

Context Window

Context Window

Context Window: Tokens Limit; Higher is better

Maximum number of combined input & output tokens. Output tokens commonly have a significantly lower limit (varied by model).

JSON Mode & Function Calling

Function (Tool) Calling & JSON Mode

ModelsFunction callingJSON Mode
Sonar Pro, Perplexity logoSonar Pro, Perplexity
Sonar, Perplexity logoSonar, Perplexity

Indicates whether the provider supports function calling in their API. Function calling is also known as 'Tool Calling'.

Indicates whether the provider supports JSON mode in their API. When JSON mode is enabled, the models will always return a valid JSON object.

Pricing

Intelligence vs. Price

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index; Price: USD per 1M Tokens
Most attractive quadrant

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.0 includes: GDPval-AA, 𝜏²-Bench Telecom, Terminal-Bench Hard, SciCode, AA-LCR, AA-Omniscience, IFBench, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them.

Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

Performance Summary

Output Speed vs. Price

Output Speed: Output Tokens per Second; Price: USD per 1M Tokens; 10,000 Input Tokens
Most attractive quadrant
Perplexity

Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).

Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).

Speed

Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)

Output Speed

Output Tokens per Second; Higher is better; 10,000 Input Tokens

Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

Latency

Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token

Time to First Token

Seconds to First Token Received; Lower is better; 10,000 Input Tokens

Time to first token received, in seconds, after API request sent. For reasoning models which share reasoning tokens, this will be the first reasoning token. For models which do not support streaming, this represents time to receive the completion.

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

End-to-End Response Time

Seconds to output 500 Tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed

End-to-End Response Time vs. Price

End-to-End Response Time: End-to-End Seconds to Output 500 Tokens; Price: USD per 1M Tokens
Most attractive quadrant
Perplexity

Seconds to receive a 500 token response considering input processing time, 'thinking' time of reasoning models, and output speed.

Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

Key definitions

Maximum number of combined input & output tokens. Output tokens commonly have a significantly lower limit (varied by model).

Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).

Time to first token received, in seconds, after API request sent. For reasoning models which share reasoning tokens, this will be the first reasoning token. For models which do not support streaming, this represents time to receive the completion.

Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).

Price per token generated by the model (received from the API), represented as USD per million Tokens.

Price per token included in the request/message sent to the API, represented as USD per million Tokens.

Metrics are 'live' and are based on the past 72 hours of measurements, measurements are taken 8 times a day for single requests and 2 times per day for parallel requests.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Perplexity

Perplexity offers 2 models that we track: Sonar Pro and Sonar.

The fastest model on Perplexity by output speed is Sonar Pro at 151.1 tokens per second.

The model with the lowest time to first token on Perplexity is Sonar Pro at 1.59s. Lower latency means faster initial response time.

The most affordable model on Perplexity by blended price is Sonar at $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 input to output ratio).

Prices on Perplexity vary up to 6x across models, from $1.00 per 1M tokens for Sonar to $6.00 per 1M tokens for Sonar Pro.

Yes, Perplexity offers an OpenAI-compatible API, making it easy to switch from OpenAI or use existing OpenAI SDK integrations.

Yes, provider performance can vary over time due to infrastructure changes, load balancing, and updates. We continuously benchmark all providers and display historical performance trends in the "Over Time" charts.

When choosing a model on Perplexity, consider: intelligence (for quality-sensitive tasks), output speed (for throughput-intensive tasks), latency (for interactive applications requiring quick first responses), pricing (for cost-sensitive workloads), and features like context window size, JSON mode, or function calling support.