Grok 3 vs Sonar Pro
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Grok 3 specs · Sonar Pro specs- PriceTie
Both land near $15.00 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost.
- Context windowSonar Pro
Sonar Pro accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGrok 3
Grok 3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Sonar Pro.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
It's a genuine coin-flip between Grok 3 and Sonar Pro: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Both land near $15.00 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost. Sonar Pro accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Grok 3 handles text, vision while Sonar Pro handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2025, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Grok 3 is usually picked for chatbots and research agent workloads, while Sonar Pro sees more deployments in research agent and rag. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Grok 3 | Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Perplexity |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Jan 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $3.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $15.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-08 | , |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs $31.50
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $315
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $540
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: both models cost about $31.50 a month, call it a tie. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: both models cost about $315 a month, call it a tie. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: both models cost about $540 a month, call it a tie.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Grok 3$1.05
- Sonar Pro$1.05
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
Grok 3 fits when…
- Real-time X access
- Reasoning modes
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Sonar Pro fits when…
- Multi-step web search
- Deep research output
- Citations
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Grok 3.
Consider Grok 4
xAI's mid-2025 flagship, top scores on Humanity's Last Exam at launch, with native real-time X integration.
Frequently asked
Is Grok 3 or Sonar Pro cheaper?
Both Grok 3 and Sonar Pro are priced equivalently at $15.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens.Which has the larger context window?
Sonar Pro accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Grok 3.Is Grok 3 or Sonar Pro better for coding?
Both Grok 3 and Sonar Pro are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Grok 3 and Sonar Pro released?
Grok 3 was released by xAI on 2025-02-17. Sonar Pro was released by Perplexity on 2025-01-21.
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