Sonar vs Yi-Lightning: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Sonar and Yi-Lightning across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureSonarYi-Lightning
ProviderPerplexity01.AI
Input Price / 1M tokens$1.00$0.140
Output Price / 1M tokens$1.00$0.140
Context Window
127K
16K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,160
1,165
Coding ELO
1,170
1,170
TTFT (ms)
150
150
Tokens/sec
100
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
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
When to Use Yi-Lightning

Yi-Lightning excels at cost-effective, fast-inference tasks.

Strengths:

  • Very cheap
  • Very fast
  • Good quality

Best for:

cost-effectivefast-inference

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