Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Sonar
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 37.8 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 4.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
PerplexitySummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 88.7 to 31.3.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 60.5 | 37.8 |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | 2024-01-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Max output | 128K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | $1 |
| Results tracked | 16 | 7 |
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Category by category
Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 65.5 (#6), Sonar: 35.1 (#217)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1699 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 44.9 (#14), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 52.4 (#29), Sonar: 20.3 (#221)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |
Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 88.7 (#4), Sonar: 31.3 (#197)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
Knowledge Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#11), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 53.2 (#5), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Sonar: 71.5 (#146)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Sonar: 52.6 (#166)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Sonar?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 37.8 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 4.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Sonar?
Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Sonar better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.5 versus 35.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Sonar share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 16 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.