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o4-mini 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

o4-mini specs · Sonar Pro specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo4-mini

    o4-mini is roughly 3.4× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $15.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 200K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • Modalitieso4-mini

    o4-mini supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Sonar Pro.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance o4-mini edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Sonar Pro's 0. o4-mini is roughly 3.4× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $15.00 per 1M). Both ship a 200K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, o4-mini 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.

o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Sonar Pro, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. o4-mini is usually picked for reasoning and math 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

Speco4-miniSonar Pro
ProviderOpenAIPerplexity
ReleasedApr 2025Jan 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$1.10 / 1M tokens$3.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.40 / 1M tokens$15.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-06,
Open weightsNoNo
API availableYesYes

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$9.90 vs $31.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$99.00 vs $315
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$191 vs $540

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $9.90 vs $31.50 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $99.00 vs $315 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $191 vs $540 per month, model A comes out ahead.

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • o4-mini$0.330
  • 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.

o4-miniSonar Pro
  • GPQA81.4
Pick o4-mini if

o4-mini fits when…

  • Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Solid tool-use
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 3.4× cheaper than Sonar Pro on output tokens.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Sonar Pro if

Sonar Pro fits when…

  • Multi-step web search
  • Deep research output
  • Citations
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5.5

OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.

See GPT-5.5 specso4-mini vs GPT-5.5Sonar Pro vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

  • Is o4-mini or Sonar Pro cheaper?
    o4-mini is cheaper at $4.40 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Sonar Pro.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both o4-mini and Sonar Pro ship a 200K-token context window.
  • Is o4-mini or Sonar Pro better for coding?
    Both o4-mini 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 o4-mini and Sonar Pro released?
    o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16. Sonar Pro was released by Perplexity on 2025-01-21.
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