Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research✓ Catalog verified
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 information. This enables comprehensive report generation across domains like finance, technology, health, and current events. Notes on Pricing (Source) - Input tokens comprise of Prompt tokens (user prompt) + Citation tokens (these are processed tokens from running searches) - Deep Research runs multiple searches to conduct exhaustive research. Searches are priced at $5/1000 searches. A request that does 30 searches will cost $0.15 in this step. - Reasoning is a distinct step in Deep Research since it does extensive automated reasoning through all the material it gathers during its research phase. Reasoning tokens here are a bit different than the CoTs in the answer - these are tokens that we use to reason through the research material prior to generating the outputs via the CoTs. Reasoning tokens are priced at $3/1M tokens
Overview
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 information. This enables comprehensive report generation across domains like finance, technology, health, and current events. Notes on Pricing (Source) - Input tokens comprise of Prompt tokens (user prompt) + Citation tokens (these are processed tokens from running searches) - Deep Research runs multiple searches to conduct exhaustive research. Searches are priced at $5/1000 searches. A request that does 30 searches will cost $0.15 in this step. - Reasoning is a distinct step in Deep Research since it does extensive automated reasoning through all the material it gathers during its research phase. Reasoning tokens here are a bit different than the CoTs in the answer - these are tokens that we use to reason through the research material prior to generating the outputs via the CoTs. Reasoning tokens are priced at $3/1M tokens
Access: available through the official Perplexity API. Context window: 128K.
Specifications
| API identifier | perplexity/sonar-deep-research |
| Provider | Perplexity |
| Model type | Text LLM |
| Context window | 128K catalog |
| Input modalities | text |
| Output modalities | text |
| Released | Mar 7, 2025 |
| Instruction format | deepseek-r1 |
| Moderated | No |
| Architecture modality | text->text |
Pricing
Live pricing components for perplexity/sonar-deep-research as published in the catalog.
| Pricing component | Raw unit price | Normalized | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prompt tokens | $0.000002 | $2.00 / 1M | Per input token |
| Completion tokens | $0.000008 | $8.00 / 1M | Per output token |
| Request fee | N/A | N/A | Per request |
| Image fee | N/A | N/A | Per image unit |
| Web search fee | $0.005 | $0.005000 | Per search request |
Cost calculator
Estimate monthly spend from your own token volumes.
Estimated Total Cost
$2.6Calculated from current list pricing in the ModelsAtlas catalog.Capabilities
| Capability | Status | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Understanding | Not advertised | Image and document analysis support |
| Audio Processing | Not advertised | Speech and voice aligned flows |
| Tool Calling | Not advertised | Supports tools / function calling |
| Self-Hosting | Not advertised | Deploy outside managed APIs |
Capability signals
Directional signals derived from model metadata and capability tags — not official benchmark submissions.
Quick start
Call Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research through an OpenAI-compatible client.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
api_key="YOUR_API_KEY"
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="perplexity/sonar-deep-research",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum physics."}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)Alternatives
Closest models by context window from a different provider.
| Model | Provider | Context | Input /1M | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AllenAI: Olmo 2 32B Instruct | Allenai | 128K | $0.05 | View → |
| Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0 | Amazon | 128K | $0.04 | View → |
Sources & attribution
Pricing and metadata are maintained in the ModelsAtlas catalog.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research cost?
$2.00 per 1M input tokens and $8.00 per 1M output tokens on the official Perplexity API.
What is the context window of Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research?
Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research supports up to 128K tokens of context.
Does Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research support tool / function calling?
Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research does not advertise first-class tool/function calling. Check vendor docs for the latest capabilities.
How do I access Perplexity: Sonar Deep Research?
Use the official Perplexity API with the model id `perplexity/sonar-deep-research`. See the Quick start section above for code examples.