o4 Mini vs Sonar (Comparative Analysis)
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Overview
Sonar was released 2 months before o4 Mini.
 o4 Mini |  Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
Model Provider The organization behind this AI's development | OpenAI | Perplexity |
Input Context Window Maximum input tokens this model can process at once | 200K tokens | 127.1K tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 100K tokens | Not specified tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | April 16, 2025 1 year ago April 16th, 2025 | January 27, 2025 1 year ago January 27th, 2025 |
Knowledge Cutoff Latest training-data date reported by the provider | June 30, 2024 | Not reported |
Capabilities & Features
Compare supported features, modalities, and advanced capabilities
o4 Mini | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 🖼️Image📝Text📁File | 📝Text🖼️Image |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | Optional | Not reported |
Output Types Supported output formats | 📝Text | 📝Text |
Tokenizer Text encoding system | GPT | Other |
Key Features Advanced capabilities | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning Mode✓Content Moderation | Function CallingStructured OutputReasoning ModeContent Moderation |
Pricing
o4 Mini is roughly 1.1x more expensive compared to Sonar for input tokens and roughly 4.4x more expensive for output tokens.
| o4 Mini | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $1.10 per million tokens | $1.00 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $4.40 per million tokens | $1.00 per million tokens |
Web Search Cost Additional cost for each web search operation | $0.01 per search | $0.005 per search |
Cache Read Cost Cost to reuse cached input tokens | $0.28 per million tokens | Not specified |
Benchmarks
Compare relevant benchmarks between o4 Mini and Sonar.
| o4 Mini | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
Best Design Arena Score Highest human-preference Elo score across design arenas | 1,042 Elo (#95 in Game Dev (50.0% win rate)) | Benchmark not available. |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes o4 Mini and Sonar unique.
o4 Mini by OpenAI understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 200K token context window. Reasonably priced at $1.10/M input and $4.40/M output tokens. Includes built-in content moderation for safer outputs. Released April 16th, 2025.Sonar by Perplexity understands both text and images. It can handle standard conversations with its 127.1K token context window. Reasonably priced at $1.00/M input and $1.00/M output tokens. Released January 27th, 2025.Explore More Comparisons
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Compare Sonar with:
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🎨Creative & Roleplay
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