Sonar

Overview

Sonar is the lightweight, fast model in Perplexity’s Sonar family. It is optimized for quick, cost-effective answers grounded in real-time search results, making it a good choice for high-volume factual queries and lightweight retrieval.

Capabilities

• Search grounding with citations for factual accuracy
• Low-latency responses for real-time applications
• Large-context handling for longer queries
• Efficient throughput for high-volume usage

Strengths

• Fast, grounded responses for factual lookups
• Cost-efficient for large-scale deployments
• Good for real-time knowledge assistants
• Reliable in multi-turn factual conversations

Limitations and Considerations

• Less depth than Sonar Pro or Reasoning variants
• Not optimized for complex analytical reasoning
• Output quality depends on the availability of sources

Best Use Cases

Sonar excels at:

• Quick fact lookups
• Current events queries
• High-volume information retrieval
• Cost-sensitive search applications
• Real-time data access