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Phi-3 Medium vs Sonar: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Phi-3 Medium and Sonar across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeaturePhi-3 MediumSonar
ProviderMicrosoftPerplexity
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.170$1.00
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.170$1.00
Context Window
128K
127K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,170
1,160
Coding ELO
1,175
1,170
TTFT (ms)
150
150
Tokens/sec
100
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use Phi-3 Medium

Phi-3 Medium excels at cost-effective, general-purpose tasks.

Strengths:

  • Affordable
  • Fast
  • Good instruction following

Best for:

cost-effectivegeneral-purpose
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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