Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Perplexity: Sonar benchmark

Name: OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Perplexity: Sonar AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares OpenAI: o3 Mini (OpenAI) and Perplexity: Sonar (perplexity) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 17, 2026. Perplexity: Sonar wins on output price at $1/1M. OpenAI: o3 Mini has the larger context window (200k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

Share Analysis:

WhatsApp Telegram X / Post LinkedIn Reddit

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (openai/o3-mini). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,560$4.4/1M out

perplexity

Perplexity: Sonar

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (perplexity/sonar). Preview until a second source matches.

$1/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

OpenAI: o3 Mini (8)vsPerplexity: Sonar (2)

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 8W (80%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniPerplexity: Sonar: 2W (20%)

← OpenAI: o3 MiniPerplexity: Sonar →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,560vs—

Coding Elo

1,585vs—

SWE-bench

78.5%vs—

LiveBench

72.4%vs—

GPQA Diamond

87.2%vs—

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 5WPerplexity: Sonar: 0W

OpenAI: o3 Mini (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs—

Time to first token

290 msvs—

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 2WPerplexity: Sonar: 0W

Perplexity: Sonar (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$4.4/1Mvs$1/1M

Input price

$1.1/1Mvs$1/1M

Context window

200kvs127k

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 1WPerplexity: Sonar: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageOpenAI: o3 Mini 5/6

Preference Elo

No shared data

Throughput Speed

No shared data

Price Efficiency

Perplexity: Sonar

$3.40/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,560

EloHigh is better

—

Code Elo

High is better

1,585

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

72.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

—

SWE-bench

High is better

78.5%

SWE-benchHigh is better

—

GPQA

High is better

87.2%

GPQAHigh is better

—

TTFT

Low is better

290 ms

TTFTLow is better

—

Speed

High is better

92 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

—

In $

Low is better

$1.1/1M

In $Low is better

$1/1M+10%

Out $

Low is better

$4.4/1M

Out $Low is better

$1/1M+340%

Context

High is better

+57%200k

ContextHigh is better

127k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 52% with Perplexity: Sonar

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

OpenAI: o3 Mini$104.50 / mo

In: $38.50Out: $66.00

Perplexity: Sonar$50.00 / mo

In: $35.00Out: $15.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Perplexity: Sonar is estimated to save $54.50/month ($654/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Perplexity: Sonar:Pick Perplexity: Sonar when you are optimizing output cost.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatPerplexity: Sonar

Lower output list price ($1/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGOpenAI: o3 Mini

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionPerplexity: Sonar

Perplexity: Sonar is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Perplexity: Sonar	Lower output list price ($1/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Perplexity: Sonar	Perplexity: Sonar is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

0 total votes

Community Discussions (0)

No comments posted on this matchup yet. Be the first to share an evaluation note!

Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/o3-mini-vs-sonar/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Elo 1,560

LiveBench72.4%

SWE-bench78.5%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$4.4/1M

perplexity

Perplexity: Sonar

Elo n/a

LiveBench—

SWE-bench—

Speed—

Output cost$1/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?: We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?: SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Perplexity: Sonar output tokens are $1/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?: We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?: OpenAI: o3 Mini accepts 200k tokens versus 127k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. OpenAI: o3 Mini and Perplexity: Sonar Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All OpenAI: o3 Mini matchups →|All Perplexity: Sonar matchups →

OpenAI: o3 Mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (previous gpt-mini)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs GPT-5 mini (next gpt-mini)GPT-5 vs OpenAI: o3 Mini GPT-5.6 Terra vs OpenAI: o3 Mini GPT-4.5 Orion vs OpenAI: o3 Mini GPT-5.6 Sol vs OpenAI: o3 Mini

OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Perplexity: Sonar benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

OpenAI: o3 Mini (8)vsPerplexity: Sonar (2)

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 8W (80%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniPerplexity: Sonar: 2W (20%)

← OpenAI: o3 MiniPerplexity: Sonar →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,560vs—

Coding Elo

1,585vs—

SWE-bench

78.5%vs—

LiveBench

72.4%vs—

GPQA Diamond

87.2%vs—

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 5WPerplexity: Sonar: 0W

OpenAI: o3 Mini (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs—

Time to first token

290 msvs—

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 2WPerplexity: Sonar: 0W

Perplexity: Sonar (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$4.4/1Mvs$1/1M

Input price

$1.1/1Mvs$1/1M

Context window

200kvs127k

OpenAI: o3 Mini: 1WPerplexity: Sonar: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatPerplexity: Sonar

Lower output list price ($1/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGOpenAI: o3 Mini

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionPerplexity: Sonar

Perplexity: Sonar is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Perplexity: Sonar	Lower output list price ($1/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Perplexity: Sonar	Perplexity: Sonar is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?

We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.

Which is better at coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?

SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Perplexity: Sonar output tokens are $1/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Perplexity: Sonar?

We do not have TTFT for both models.

Which has the larger context window?

OpenAI: o3 Mini accepts 200k tokens versus 127k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. OpenAI: o3 Mini and Perplexity: Sonar Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.