Particle Ai lists 1 models and Perplexity 5. Particle Ai is cheaper on a typical model ($0.44 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Particle Ai | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 1 | 5 |
| Models with published pricing | 1 | 5 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.44 | $3.50 |
| Cheapest paid model | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Perplexity: Sonar ($1.00) |
| Longest context | Particle AI: Particle-1 (1.0M) | Perplexity: Sonar Pro (200K) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Particle AI: Particle-1 (2026-10-28) | Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search (2025-10-30) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | Particle Ai | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $38.75 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $95.00 with Perplexity: Sonar |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $40.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $130 with Perplexity: Sonar |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $42.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $26.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $86.00 with Perplexity: Sonar |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $13.50 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $51.00 with Perplexity: Sonar |
| You need | Particle Ai | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Perplexity: Sonar ($1.00) |
| With tool calling | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | none listed |
| With image input | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Perplexity: Sonar ($1.00) |
| With reasoning mode | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research ($3.50) |
| 128K+ context | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research ($3.50) |
| 1M+ context | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | none listed |
| Model type | Particle Ai | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 1 | 4 |
| text->text | 0 | 1 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Particle Ai | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 1 | 0 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 1 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 4 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Particle Ai is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.44 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $3.50 for Perplexity. The cheapest paid models are Particle AI: Particle-1 at $0.44 and Perplexity: Sonar at $1.00.
It depends on the job: Perplexity offers the broader line-up (1 models vs 5), Particle Ai the lower typical price, Particle Ai the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Perplexity: Particle Ai lists 1 models and Perplexity lists 5.
Particle Ai: Particle Ai's longest is Particle AI: Particle-1 at 1.0M tokens; Perplexity's is Perplexity: Sonar Pro at 200K.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Particle Ai: 1 of 1 models accept images. Perplexity: 4 of 5.