Perplexity Sonar is Perplexity’s API model for programmatic search queries, available in two variants: Sonar (standard, faster, cheaper) and Sonar Pro (advanced reasoning, higher cost). Both variants perform real-time web retrieval and return synthesized answers with explicit source citations — the behavior that makes Perplexity the most citation-focused platform Cited tracks.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getcited.in/llms.txt
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Why it matters
The distinction between Sonar and Sonar Pro matters for measurement economics. Sonar Pro provides richer responses with more sophisticated reasoning, but at roughly 6x the cost. For large-scale monitoring across hundreds of brands and queries, the cost difference is substantial. The choice of model affects the cost-viability of comprehensive AI visibility tracking.How Cited uses it
The Cited Index uses Sonar (not Sonar Pro) for its monthly refresh across 253 brands — a deliberate cost optimization that provides an 83% cost reduction with comparable mention rate accuracy. Individual brand dashboards may use Sonar Pro for deeper analysis. See Which LLMs we track for all model details and How Perplexity ranks sources for how Sonar selects and ranks citations.Related concepts
- How Perplexity ranks sources — Sonar’s source selection behavior
- Which LLMs we track — all tracked models including Sonar
- RAG — the retrieval mechanism Sonar uses