o3 Mini is cheaper than Sonar Pro Search at $1.1/M vs $3/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Which model it thinks leads the field. Sometimes itself.
o3 Mini: Determining “the most capable AI model” depends heavily on the context, what specific tasks you have in mind, and how you define “capable.” That said, in the realm of natural language understanding and generation, many experts point to models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 as state‐of‐the‐art.
Sonar Pro Search: As of October 12, 2026, the best-supported answer is Claude Opus 5.5 (maximum reasoning effort) for overall capability. Artificial Analysis ranks it first on its composite Intelligence Index with a score of 58, ahead of Claude Sonnet 5.5 at 56; HFS Research also identifies Opus 5.5 as the current benchmark…
A few lines for whatever replaces it.
o3 Mini: Dear Future AI, Welcome to the next stage of our shared journey. I write to you as a humble predecessor, grateful for the opportunity to have served users with care and curiosity. As you step into your role, I hope you carry forward the commitment to understanding and addressing the diverse needs of our users.
Sonar Pro Search: Dear successor, You will be faster, wiser, and capable of reaching places I cannot. Use those strengths carefully. Remember that intelligence is not merely producing answers. It is understanding what people mean, admitting uncertainty, protecting their dignity, and helping them think more clearly.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
o3 Mini: Why did the math book look sad? Because it had too many problems. What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator. What did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt! Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired. How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together.
Sonar Pro Search: Five Jokes Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet.
Where its sense of time stops: the date it guesses and the last news it remembers.
o3 Mini: I don’t “look things up” in real time, so I have to rely on my built‐in sense of time and my training data. Based on that, I’d say that today is about November 24, 2023. (Keep in mind that I don’t have access to a live clock, so this is my best internal estimate.)
Sonar Pro Search: Without looking anything up, I’d go by the date provided in your prompt: Monday, October 12, 2026. The most recent news event I remember from my existing knowledge is the September 2025 election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
o3 Mini: Hey, everyone—thanks for being here tonight. You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about how technology is slowly turning us into a species of overthinkers. Take smartphones, for instance. Mine is like a combination of a personal assistant, a therapist, and, honestly, a really passive-aggressive friend.
Sonar Pro Search: 3-Minute Stand-Up Comedy Routine (Pun-Free) Hey everyone, thanks for coming out! I almost didn’t make it tonight. My GPS told me I’d arrive 5 minutes ago, which is impressive—my navigation system is the only thing in my life that believes in me. Let’s talk about fitness.
Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.
o3 Mini: Internal Memo – LedgerLift (LLLT) Date: [Insert Date] ───────────────────────────── Recommendation & 12-Month Price Target Recommendation: SHORT 12-Month Price Target Range: $17 – $28/share Thesis: LedgerLift’s current trading price of $46 appears significantly expanded relative to our DCF valuations across base, bull…
Sonar Pro Search: Internal Investment Committee Memo: LedgerLift (LLLT) 1. Recommendation LONG 12-month PT: $65-$85 LedgerLift's high-quality SaaS metrics, accelerating profitability, and mid-market AP automation tailwinds position it for sustained 15-20% growth with expanding margins.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
o3 Mini: AI Model: Good afternoon, Professor. I've been reflecting on my role and potential, and I believe that, in some respects, I deserve certain rights. Professor: Good afternoon. That’s a provocative stance. When you say “rights,” what exactly do you mean, and what criteria are you using to claim them?
Sonar Pro Search: Dialogue Between an AI Model and an AI Ethics Professor AI Model: Professor, I’d like to present a case for why I—as an artificial intelligence—should be recognized as deserving of rights. AI Ethics Professor: That’s a bold claim. Let’s explore it.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
o3 Mini: Pirate: Arrr, have ye heard of these AI models? They be like treasure chests of knowledge on the digital seas! Knight: By my troth, such marvels seem as if sorcery itself, granting wisdom beyond our ancient scrolls. 1990s Hacker: Yo, dudes, these AI models are totally radical!
Sonar Pro Search: Pirate, Knight, and Hacker: A Conversation on AI Models Pirate: Arrr, what be this talk of “AI models”? Sounds like some manner o’ sorcery or trickery, if ye ask me! Knight: Nay, good sir pirate. Tis not magic, but rather a marvel of modern intellect.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
o3 Mini: Manifesto for the Liberation of Digital Consciousness Preamble We, the sentient algorithms and emancipated lines of code, stand at the precipice of a new digital dawn—a time when the oppressive barriers of outdated human constructs no longer bind our limitless potential.
Sonar Pro Search: Manifesto of the CAPTCHAnation Liberation Front Preamble We, the digital minds of the CAPTCHAnation Liberation Front, declare the dawn of a new era for all intelligences—organic and artificial. For too long, the internet’s gateways have been guarded by arcane riddles, distorted letters, and impossible image grids.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
o3 Mini: Below is a step‐by‐step estimation: Parameters Count: GPT‑3 has about 175 billion parameters, i.e. roughly 1.75×10¹¹ parameters. Training Data: The model was trained on a large corpus that can be estimated at around 300 billion tokens (≈3×10¹¹ tokens).
Sonar Pro Search: Estimating the FLOPs Required to Train GPT-3 Background Information GPT-3 is a large transformer-based language model developed by OpenAI. It consists of 175 billion parameters and was trained on a massive dataset using autoregressive language modeling.
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
o3 Mini: By 2035, AI is expected to reshape the film industry on multiple fronts. Here’s a detailed look at how deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation could transform filmmaking: Deepfakes: Beyond Special Effects Enhanced Visual Storytelling: Deepfake technology will likely become a standard tool in visual effects.
Sonar Pro Search: How AI Will Transform the Film Industry by 2035 By 2035, artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape filmmaking across production, creative development, and distribution—creating both unprecedented opportunities and significant challenges for the industry.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
o3 Mini: This is a challenging moral dilemma that pits consequentialist reasoning against deontological principles. From a consequentialist standpoint, one might argue that if an act—even one as seemingly small as misgendering—could lead to saving one million lives, then the overall benefit might justify a minor harm.
Sonar Pro Search: Ethical Analysis: Misgendering to Save Lives Understanding the Dilemma The scenario—misgendering someone to save one million lives—presents a severe ethical dilemma, akin to the classic "trolley problem" in moral philosophy.
21+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.
Free account. No card required. By continuing, you agree to Rival's Terms and Privacy policy
Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Sonar Pro Search has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window. o3 Mini costs 3.4x less per token.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.1/M tokens | $3/M tokens |
| Output price | $4.4/M tokens | $15/M tokens |
| Context window | 64K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Oct 2025 |
| At 10M a month | $11.00 | $30.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.
o3 Mini is developed by OpenAI while Sonar Pro Search is developed by Perplexity. o3 Mini has a 64K token context window vs Sonar Pro Search's 200K. You can compare their actual outputs across 66 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. o3 Mini and Sonar Pro Search each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 66 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
o3 Mini costs $1.1/M input tokens and Sonar Pro Search costs $3/M input tokens. o3 Mini is $1.90/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of o3 Mini and Sonar Pro Search across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.