Claude Opus 4.6 vs Sonar Deep Research
Side-by-side API pricing and Artificial Analysis performance for Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) and Sonar Deep Research (Perplexity). Green cells mark the better value in each row.
Prices updated Jul 22, 2026, 3:50 AM UTC · refreshed hourly
| Claude Opus 4.6 Anthropic | Sonar Deep Research Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Input $/1M | $5.00 | $2.00 |
| Output $/1M | $25.00 | $8.00 |
| Blended $/1M (3:1) | $10.00 | $3.50 |
| RAG example (30K in / 2K out) | $0.2 | $0.076 |
| Quality & speed | ||
| Intelligence Index | 37.8 | — |
| Coding Index | — | — |
| Agentic Index | — | — |
| Output speed (tok/s) | 57 | — |
| Time to first token | 1.85s | — |
| Specs | ||
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Input modalities | text, image, file | text |
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Sonar Deep Research?
Sonar Deep Research has the lower blended API price at $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 input:output mix), versus $10.00 for the other model. Prices are live from OpenRouter and refresh about hourly.
Which is better for RAG workloads?
For a typical RAG request (30K input / 2K output tokens), Sonar Deep Research costs about $0.076 per request versus $0.2. Also compare context windows: Claude Opus 4.6 offers 1M and Sonar Deep Research offers 128K.
Which scores higher on Artificial Analysis benchmarks?
Claude Opus 4.6 leads on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (37.8 vs —). Check coding and agentic indices on this page for workload-specific tradeoffs.