Grok 3 vs Sonar: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Grok 3 and Sonar across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGrok 3Sonar
ProviderxAIPerplexity
Input Price / 1M tokens$2.50$1.00
Output Price / 1M tokens$12.50$1.00
Context Window
200K
127K
Max Output Tokens
8,192
4,096
Arena ELO
1,285
1,160
Coding ELO
1,280
1,170
TTFT (ms)
200
150
Tokens/sec
90
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use Grok 3

Grok 3 excels at general-purpose, coding, reasoning tasks.

Strengths:

  • Latest xAI model
  • Strong reasoning
  • Large context

Best for:

general-purposecodingreasoning
When to Use Sonar

Sonar excels at web-search, cost-effective tasks.

Strengths:

  • Web search built-in
  • Affordable
  • Good quality

Best for:

web-searchcost-effective

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