How much does Sonar cost per million tokens?

Sonar costs $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens at list price.

What is the context window of Sonar?

Sonar accepts up to 127,072 tokens of context and returns up to 114,364 output tokens.

How much do 1,000 chat messages cost with Sonar?

About $1.50, assuming 1,000 input + 500 output tokens per message.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Sonar?

In the same price range, OpenAI GPT-6 Luna Pro ($0.1 / $0.5), OpenAI GPT-6 Luna ($0.1 / $0.5), Qwen Qwen3.8 Omni Flash ($0.15 / $0.47) cost less per token. Quality differs: test on your own prompts.

Where can I buy Perplexity API credits for less?

Discount credit books resell OpenRouter usage below face value within their depth, OpenRouter adds a 5.5% card fee, and Perplexity sells its own credits at face value. The live table on this page ranks them for $100 of usage.

Perplexity · live price

Sonar API pricing

Sonar is lightweight, affordable, fast, and simple to use — now featuring citations and the ability to customize sources. It is designed for companies seeking to integrate lightweight question-and-answer features...

Mid-range ($1–5 per 1M)image input

Input: $1; per 1M tokens
Output: $1; per 1M tokens
Cached input: –; per 1M tokens
Context: 127K; 114K max output

List price from OpenRouter, which passes Perplexity's price through without markup. Refreshed hourly. Released January 27, 2025. Model id perplexity/sonar.

What Sonar costs in practice

At list price, before any batch or caching discount.

1,000 chat messages

$1.50

1,000 input + 500 output tokens each

1,000 RAG questions

$8.50

8,000 input + 500 output tokens each

100 coding-agent steps

$3.20

30,000 input + 2,000 output tokens each, no caching

Sonar price history

No price change since we started tracking on 2026-10-01. We record prices daily; changes will show here.

Sonar price by host

One host serves this model through OpenRouter.

Perplexity$1 in · $1 out · 127K ctx · 100.0% uptime 24h

Where to buy Perplexity credits for less

Sonar costs the same per token everywhere it's sold through OpenRouter. What changes is the price of the credits. Live quotes for $100 of usage:

#	Where you buy	You payYou pay for $100.00 of usage	vs list price	Price source
1	OrbioCardCheapest right now Credits from a discount book, plus a 5% platform fee and card processing, both included in the quote.	$85.10 incl. $2.60 card processing	-14.9%	live quote
2	smaaartCard Credits from a discount book, plus a 5% platform fee on face value. Card processing and taxes shown at checkout.	$95.00 + card processing and tax at checkout (not in this number)	-5.0%	live quote
3	Direct from the labCard Prepaid credits at face value (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google…). Taxes may apply.	$100.00 no top-up fee	list price	face value
4	OpenRouterCrypto 5% on crypto purchases. No markup on model prices.	$105.00 fees included	+5.0%	published fee
5	OpenRouterCard 5.5% on card purchases, $0.80 minimum. No markup on model prices.	$105.50 fees included	+5.5%	published fee

Disclosure: this site is run by the team behind smaaart, one of the options compared. Tables are ranked by price only, from live quotes and published fees, including when smaaart isn't first. How we compare

Sonar cost calculator

Enter your monthly tokens to price your own usage.

Model$1.00 in / $1.00 out per 1M tokens · list price, liveInput tokens / month (millions)Output tokens / month (millions)

Usage at list price$60.00/ month

Cheaper alternatives to Sonar

Other labs' models in the same price range or the one below, cheaper per token.

Model	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Blended 3:1	Context
OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna Pro	$0.1	$0.5	$0.2	1.1M
OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna	$0.1	$0.5	$0.2	1.1M
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Omni Flash	$0.15	$0.47	$0.23	1M
Z.ai: GLM 5.3 FlashX	$0.37	$1.25	$0.59	1.0M
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	$0.03	$0.5	$0.147	1.0M
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash	$0.15	$0.47	$0.23	1M

Other Perplexity models

Model	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Blended 3:1	Context
Sonar Deep Research	$2	$8	$3.50	128K
Sonar Pro	$3	$15	$6	200K
Sonar Reasoning Pro	$2	$8	$3.50	128K
Sonar Pro Search	$3	$15	$6	200K

All Perplexity API prices