OpenAI o3-mini vs Perplexity Sonar

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

OpenAI o3-mini

OpenAI

Affordable reasoning model for coding tasks. Best price-performance for algorithm-heavy work.

Input	$1.10/M
Output	$4.40/M
Context	200K tokens
Best For	Algorithm design, coding challenges, debugging
Benchmark	80/100

Perplexity

Perplexity's standard search model. Fast, cited answers at lower cost than Sonar Pro.

Input	$1.00/M
Output	$1.00/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	Quick research, fact-checking, search-augmented chat

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

Scenario	OpenAI o3-mini	Perplexity Sonar	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.17	$0.07	Perplexity Sonar saves $0.11 (62%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$1.27	$0.55	Perplexity Sonar saves $0.72 (57%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$6.33	$2.75	Perplexity Sonar saves $3.58 (57%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.30	$0.20	Perplexity Sonar saves $0.10 (34%)

Perplexity Sonar wins on both price and performance — $1.00/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.

For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.

Anthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.

Anthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.

Previous generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.

Fast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.

First generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.

First generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.