AI model comparison
Sonar vs GPT-3.5 Turbo
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Perplexity
Sonar
Sonar is lightweight, affordable, fast, and simple to use — now featuring citations and the ability to customize sources.
- Input / 1M
- $1
- Output / 1M
- $1
- Context
- 127K
OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
GPT-3.5 Turbo is OpenAI's fastest model. It can understand and generate natural language or code, and is optimized for chat and traditional completion tasks.
- Input / 1M
- $0.50
- Output / 1M
- $1.50
- Context
- 16K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
GPT-3.5 Turbo
1.4x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Sonar
7.7 vs 5.5 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Sonar
127K vs 16K tokens
Newer release
Sonar
Released January 27, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Sonar7.7GPT-3.5 Turbo5.5Coding index
SonarNot availableGPT-3.5 Turbo10.7Agentic index
SonarNot availableGPT-3.5 TurboNot availablePricing
Sonar vs GPT-3.5 Turbo API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Sonar | GPT-3.5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.50 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $1.50 |
| 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$2.50GPT-3.5 Turbo$1.75Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Sonar$34GPT-3.5 Turbo$21Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Sonar$152GPT-3.5 Turbo$78Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Sonar | GPT-3.5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 127K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Max output | 114K tokens | 4K 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 | January 27, 2025 | May 28, 2023 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Sonar | GPT-3.5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Not supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Not supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not 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.
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- Sonar vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- Sonar vs GLM 4.5V
- Sonar vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct
- Sonar vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Sonar vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
Our take
GPT-3.5 Turbo is 1.4x cheaper for a typical chat. Sonar scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (7.7 vs 5.5). Sonar has the larger context window (127K vs 16K 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 or GPT-3.5 Turbo cheaper?
GPT-3.5 Turbo is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). GPT-3.5 Turbo costs $0.50 per 1M input tokens and $1.50 per 1M output tokens, while Sonar costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Sonar or GPT-3.5 Turbo?
Sonar supports up to 127K tokens of context, compared with 16K for GPT-3.5 Turbo.
Is Sonar smarter than GPT-3.5 Turbo?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Sonar scores 7.7 and GPT-3.5 Turbo scores 5.5, putting Sonar ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Sonar and GPT-3.5 Turbo at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Sonar and GPT-3.5 Turbo answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Sonar and GPT-3.5 Turbo at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.