o4 Mini vs Sonar Pro Search (Comparative Analysis)
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Comparative Analysis: o4 Mini vs. Sonar Pro Search
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Overview
o4 Mini was released 6 months before Sonar Pro Search.
 o4 Mini |  Sonar Pro Search | |
|---|---|---|
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 | 200K tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 100K tokens | 8K tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | April 16, 2025 1 year ago April 16th, 2025 | October 30, 2025 8 months ago October 30th, 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 Pro Search | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 🖼️Image📝Text📁File | 📝Text🖼️Image |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | Optional | Always enabled |
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 Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning ModeContent Moderation |
Pricing
o4 Mini is roughly 0.4x less expensive compared to Sonar Pro Search for input tokens and roughly 0.3x less expensive for output tokens.
| o4 Mini | Sonar Pro Search | |
|---|---|---|
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $1.10 per million tokens | $3.00 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $4.40 per million tokens | $15.00 per million tokens |
Web Search Cost Additional cost for each web search operation | $0.01 per search | $0.018 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 Pro Search.
| o4 Mini | Sonar Pro Search | |
|---|---|---|
Best Design Arena Score Highest human-preference Elo score across design arenas | 1,061 Elo (#88 in Game Dev (50.0% win rate)) | Benchmark not available. |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes o4 Mini and Sonar Pro Search 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 Pro Search by Perplexity understands both text and images, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 200K token context window. Premium pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output tokens. Released October 30th, 2025.Explore More Comparisons
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Compare Sonar Pro Search with:
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