Head-to-Head API Cost Benchmark

GPT-4o mini vs Perplexity Sonar Pro: API Price & Latency Comparison

On a standard B2B production workload (5,000 req/day), GPT-4o mini is 96.1% cheaper ($78.19/mo vs $2025.00/mo), while GPT-4o mini leads in token generation speed (140 tok/s).

Side-by-Side Specification & Billing Matrix

Metric GPT-4o mini (OpenAI) Perplexity Sonar Pro (Perplexity Sonar API) Advantage
Standard Input / 1M Tokens $0.150 $3.000 GPT-4o mini
Cached Input / 1M Tokens $0.075 $3.000 GPT-4o mini
Output Generation / 1M Tokens $0.60 $15.00 GPT-4o mini
Intelligence / Benchmark Quality 1224 LMSYS Elo 1260 LMSYS Elo Perplexity Sonar Pro
Monthly Spend (5k req/day, 50% cache) $78.19 / mo $2025.00 / mo GPT-4o mini (-96.1%)
Context Window 128,000 tokens 200,000 tokens Perplexity Sonar Pro
Output Speed (Throughput) 140 tokens/sec 75 tokens/sec GPT-4o mini
Batch API Discount -50% (OpenAI) -0% (Perplexity Sonar API) OpenAI
Primary Workload Fit High-volume classification, extraction, RAG summarization, low-cost chatbots Market research agents, citation-backed fact checking, B2B company enrichment Workload Dependent
Deploy / Console Access Try GPT-4o mini → Try Perplexity Sonar Pro → Open Full Simulator