Cheapest Perplexity Models

Quick answer · Updated June 2026

The cheapest Perplexity model is Sonar at $1.00 per million input tokens. Sonar Reasoning Pro ($2.00) and Sonar Deep Research ($2.00) round out the top three.

$1.00Input /M

94 t/sSpeed

127KContext

AI models ranked by input token price. The most affordable large language model APIs, from budget open-weight models to discounted frontier models.

Frequently asked

What is the cheapest Perplexity model?

The cheapest Perplexity model is Sonar at $1.00 per million input tokens. Sonar Reasoning Pro ($2.00) and Sonar Deep Research ($2.00) round out the top three.

What's a good alternative to Sonar?

Sonar Reasoning Pro ($2.00) is the closest alternative on this metric, followed by Sonar Deep Research ($2.00). See the full ranking above for the tradeoffs.

How many Perplexity models are there?

modelgrep tracks 5 Perplexity models with live benchmarks, speed, latency and per-provider pricing. 5 of them qualify for this ranking.

More Perplexity rankings

Perplexity: Smartest LLMs Perplexity: Best LLMs for Coding Perplexity: Best LLMs for Design & Frontend Perplexity: Fastest LLMs Perplexity: Lowest-Latency LLMs Perplexity: Best Free LLMs Perplexity: Best Reasoning LLMs Perplexity: Best Vision LLMs Perplexity: Best LLMs for Agents Perplexity: Best Open-Source LLMs Perplexity: Longest-Context LLMs

All rankings

Small & Fast LLMs Smartest LLMs Best LLMs for Coding Best LLMs for Design & Frontend Fastest LLMs Lowest-Latency LLMs Best Free LLMs Best Reasoning LLMs Best Vision LLMs Best LLMs for Agents Best Open-Source LLMs Longest-Context LLMs