AI model comparison
Sonar Reasoning Pro vs R1
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Perplexity
Sonar Reasoning Pro
Note: Sonar Pro pricing includes Perplexity search pricing. See [details here](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/pricing#detailed-pricing-breakdown-for-sonar-reasoning-pro-and-sonar-pro) Sonar Reasoning Pro is a premier reasoning model powered by DeepSeek R1 with Chain of Thought (CoT).
- Input / 1M
- $2
- Output / 1M
- $8
- Context
- 128K
DeepSeek
R1
DeepSeek R1 is here: Performance on par with [OpenAI o1](/openai/o1), but open-sourced and with fully open reasoning tokens.
- Input / 1M
- $0.70
- Output / 1M
- $2.50
- Context
- 64K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
R1
3.0x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Sonar Reasoning Pro
11.8 vs 11.4 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Sonar Reasoning Pro
128K vs 64K tokens
Newer release
Sonar Reasoning Pro
Released March 7, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Sonar Reasoning Pro11.8R111.4Coding index
Sonar Reasoning ProNot availableR124.6Agentic index
Sonar Reasoning ProNot availableR11.1Pricing
Sonar Reasoning Pro vs R1 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Sonar Reasoning Pro | R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $2 | $0.70 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $8 | $2.50 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | $0.005 | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Sonar Reasoning Pro$8R1$2.65Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Sonar Reasoning Pro$92R1$31Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Sonar Reasoning Pro$316R1$110Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Sonar Reasoning Pro | R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 128K tokens | 64K tokens |
| Max output | 115K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | March 7, 2025 | January 20, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Sonar Reasoning Pro | R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Not supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Not supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Not supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Not supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Sonar Reasoning ProView full model details- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Mistral Medium 3.5
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Command A
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs GPT-4.1
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs o3 Mini
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs o3 Mini High
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Nova Premier 1.0
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs GPT-4o (2024-11-20)
- Sonar Reasoning Pro vs Sonar Pro
Our take
R1 is 3.0x cheaper for a typical chat. Sonar Reasoning Pro scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (11.8 vs 11.4). Sonar Reasoning Pro has the larger context window (128K vs 64K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Sonar Reasoning Pro or R1 cheaper?
R1 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). R1 costs $0.70 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens, while Sonar Reasoning Pro costs $2 per 1M input tokens and $8 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Sonar Reasoning Pro or R1?
Sonar Reasoning Pro supports up to 128K tokens of context, compared with 64K for R1.
Is Sonar Reasoning Pro smarter than R1?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Sonar Reasoning Pro scores 11.8 and R1 scores 11.4, putting Sonar Reasoning Pro ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Sonar Reasoning Pro and R1 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Sonar Reasoning Pro and R1 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Sonar Reasoning Pro and R1 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.