Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Sonar Pro Search

Claude Sonnet 4.5 at $3.45 in and $17.25 out and Sonar Pro Search at $3.45 in and $17.25 out — per million tokens, from the same wallet.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Anthropic

3.1¢

for a client proposal

$3.45 in · $17.25 out / 1M

1M context · released September 2025

Full page →

Sonar Pro Search

Perplexity

3.1¢

for a client proposal

$3.45 in · $17.25 out / 1M

200K context · released October 2025

Full page →

Asking all both at once — identical prompt, identical context — costs about $0.06 for a typical client proposal.

At a glance

All 2 cost the same on input.
Largest context: Claude Sonnet 4.5 at 1M tokens — about 1,400 pages.

Cost per task

Estimated totals at the rates above. Solid bar is input, lighter bar is output.

Quick code fix

2K in · 500 out

Claude Sonnet 4.5

1.6¢

Sonar Pro Search

1.6¢

Draft a client proposal from notes

5K in · 800 out

Claude Sonnet 4.5

3.1¢

Sonar Pro Search

3.1¢

Context-heavy session (Alyph workspace)

155K in · 4K out

Claude Sonnet 4.5

$0.60

Sonar Pro Search

$0.60

Analyze a 50-page legal contract

35K in · 1K out

Claude Sonnet 4.5

$0.14

Sonar Pro Search

$0.14

Large architecture refactor

250K in · 3K out

Claude Sonnet 4.5

$1.80

Sonar Pro Search

needs 250K ctx

Long-context rate applied at this input size.

Solid part of each bar is input tokens, the lighter part is output. Models that don’t fit a task are marked instead of priced.

Cost vs Token Amount

Drag the slider to adjust the split between input and output workload.

80% Input20% Output

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sonar Pro Search

Adjust the ratio slider to change how output tokens influence the final price for equivalent workloads.

Pricing

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sonar Pro Search

Input / 1M tokens

$3.45

Output / 1M tokens

$17.25

Cached input / 1M

$0.345

—

Web search

1.1¢ / search

2.1¢ / search

Specs

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sonar Pro Search

Provider

Anthropic

Perplexity

Released

September 2025

October 2025

Context window

200K

Max output

64K

Input

Text, Images, and Files

Text and Images

Output

Text

Reasoning

Shows its thinking

Knowledge cutoff

2025-01-31

—

Try it with real numbers

2K tokens in · 500 tokens out.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Anthropic

1.6¢

for this task

44% input · 56% output

Full pricing →

Sonar Pro Search

Perplexity

1.6¢

for this task

44% input · 56% output

Full pricing →

All 2, same prompt and context: 3.1¢. That is the entire cost of the comparison.

Your $5 welcome credit covers about 161 of these.

Which should you pick?

For long documents, Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the largest context window here — 1M tokens.

On price they are identical: about 3.1¢ for a typical task each.

Or don’t pick. Send the identical prompt to all both, read the answers side by side, and keep the winner. How to run a fair bake-off →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 pricing →Sonar Pro Search pricing →Add Lyria 3 Clip Preview Add Grok 4.20

Questions, answered

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Sonar Pro Search?

On a typical client proposal (5K tokens in, 800 out) they cost the same — about 3.1¢ each. Compare them on context and capabilities instead.

Which has the largest context window?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 — 1M tokens, about 1,400 pages.

Can I run Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Sonar Pro Search side by side on Alyph?

Yes — that is what Alyph is built for: the identical prompt with identical context to all 2, answers rendered side by side, billed from one wallet. This exact combination costs about $0.06 for a typical task.

Ask both at once

Identical prompt, identical context, answers side by side — about $0.06 for a typical client proposal. Free to start, with $5 of credit.