PerplexityReasoningReleased 7 March 2025
Sonar Deep Research pricing, context and benchmark
Sonar Deep Research is a research-focused model designed for multi-step retrieval, synthesis, and reasoning across complex topics.
128K
Input context
115K
Output context
$2
Official input
$8
Official output
n/a
AA index
01 · Model Overview
Everything that matters, in one table
Context, pricing, cache, modalities and tooling, from the model registry and Artificial Analysis.
| Model | Sonar Deep Research |
| Model ID | perplexity/sonar-deep-research |
| Provider | Perplexity |
| Release date | 7 March 2025 |
| Status | Generally available |
| Input context | 128,000 tokens |
| Output context | 115,200 tokens |
| Official input pricing | $2 per 1M tokens |
| Official output pricing | $8 per 1M tokens |
| Cache read pricing | Not published |
| Market input pricing | $2 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Market output pricing | $8 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Reasoning tokens | Billed as output at $8 per 1M |
| Input modalities | text |
| Output modalities | text |
| Reasoning control | Yes, effort levels exposed |
| Tool support | Text generation only |
| Tokenizer | Other |
| Provider routes | 1 endpoint |
| Artificial Analysis index | Not published |
| Speed | Not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | Not publicly stated |
Input and output support
| Modality | Input | Output | Billed at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | ✓ yes | ✓ yes | $2 in |
| Image | no | no | not supported |
| Audio | no | no | not supported |
| Video | no | no | not supported |
| File (PDF) | no | no | not supported |
02 · Overview
What is Sonar Deep Research?
Sonar Deep Research is a research-focused model designed for multi-step retrieval, synthesis, and reasoning across complex topics.
It autonomously searches, reads, and evaluates sources, refining its approach as it gathers...
Sonar Deep Research carries a 128K token window, uses the Other tokenizer and is served by Perplexity. On Hoodgen it sits in the Reasoning tier of the model menu next to its siblings, so you can switch mid conversation without losing the thread.
03 · Release
Release and what changed from the previous version
Released7 March 2025
| Property | Sonar | Sonar Deep Research | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025 | 2025 | Same release window |
| Context | 127K | 128K | Changed |
| Max output | 114K | 115K | Changed |
| Input price | $1 | $2 | Higher |
| Output price | $1 | $8 | Higher |
| Input modalities | text, image | text | Unchanged |
| AA index | n/a | n/a | Newer benchmark run |
04 · Capabilities
Features and capabilities
◈
Thinking control
Reasoning effort can be dialled per request, so one model covers deep analysis and fast chat.
05 · Reasoning
Thinking and reasoning capabilities
Sonar Deep Research can think before answering and exposes the effort level per request. Reasoning tokens bill as output at $8 per million, and the trace can be returned with include_reasoning.
| Level | First token | Cost per task | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Measured | n/a | n/a | Artificial Analysis measures the default reasoning configuration |
| Low effort | Faster | Lower | Chat, autocomplete, classification |
| High effort | Slower | Higher | Debugging, planning, multi step agents |
07 · Use cases
What can you do with Sonar Deep Research?
Debugging and root cause
Multi file failures where the model has to hold a causal chain before answering.
Architecture and planning
Design docs, migration plans and trade off analysis over long context.
Data analysis
Spreadsheets and logs read in one pass, then summarised with the numbers quoted back.
Agentic coding
Repo wide changes that need plan, edit and verify loops.
09 · Pricing
Sonar Deep Research pricing
Official pricing
List price
$2 / 1M in
$8 / 1M out
- 128K context
- text input
Cheapest route
$2 / 1M in
$8 / 1M out
- 1 route on OpenRouter
- What Hoodgen routes to first
- Same model, lower bill
Market pricing, every route
| Provider | Tier | Input | Output | Cache read | Uptime 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | standard | $2 | $8 | n/a | n/a |
API pricing and cost calculator
| Rate | Per call | Total | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest route | $0.0520 | $26.00 | 24701 |
| List price | $0.0520 | $26.00 | 24701 |
10 · Developers
API and developer information
| Model ID | perplexity/sonar-deep-research |
| Endpoint | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions |
| Parameters | frequency_penalty · include_reasoning · max_tokens · presence_penalty · reasoning · temperature · top_k · top_p · web_search_options |
| Streaming | Yes, server sent events |
| Modality string | text->text |
| Max prompt tokens | 128,000 |
| Max completion tokens | 115,200 |
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "perplexity/sonar-deep-research",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarise this document." }],
"max_tokens": 1024
}'11 · Limitations
Model limitations
| Text only output | It cannot generate images, audio or video. Pair it with an image model on Hoodgen when you need visuals. |
| Output cap | 115,200 tokens per request. Long deliverables have to be chunked. |
| Benchmarks not published | Artificial Analysis does not publish an Intelligence Index for this release, so no benchmark score is claimed here. |
| Knowledge cutoff | The provider does not state a fixed cutoff for every release. Verify very recent events against search. |
13 · Privacy
Privacy and data policy
- On Hoodgen, prompts and attachments answer that request and stay in your conversation history so you can reopen it. They are not used to train models.
- Requests route through OpenRouter to Perplexity and are covered by that provider's API terms.
- Do not paste secrets or personal data you would not send to any hosted model.
14 · FAQ
Sonar Deep Research questions, answered
Sonar Deep Research is a reasoning model from Perplexity, released 7 March 2025. Sonar Deep Research is a research-focused model designed for multi-step retrieval, synthesis, and reasoning across complex topics.
✦
Start chatting with Sonar Deep Research
Free to try on Hoodgen AI, with a live credit estimate before every send. No API key, no setup.