Perplexity Launches Sonar API: Revolutionizing AI Search with Affordable and Real-Time Capabilities

Perplexity Launches Sonar API Offering Affordable and Advanced AI Search Tools

Perplexity introduces Sonar API with affordable plans, superior AI accuracy, and innovative tools for business growth. Sonar, an artificial intelligence company has launched a competitive search API product, Sonar. The company is rolling out a new product that attempts to review AI search functionality with a cost-effective and efficient solution for businesses and developers. Sonar is available in two versions: Sonar basic and premium Sonar Pro. Perplexity also raised a ton of money, bringing its value to close to $520 million. It is a milestone for this growth and competitive positioning in the AI industry.

Perplexity Launches the 'Most Affordable' GenAI Search API

On Wednesday, Perplexity launched its official API, Sonar, which will help developers integrate its real-time web search capabilities into their products. The AI search engine startup unveiled two versions of the API: Sonar and Sonar Pro. The company said Sonar Pro is "ideal for multi-step tasks requiring deep understanding and context retention". Moreover, it provides "in-depth answers" with twice the citations of Sonar. The Pro version costs $3 per million input tokens, $15 per million output tokens, and $5 per 1,000 searches, with multiple searches allowed. The Sonar plan is simpler. It charges $1 per million tokens for input and output and $5 per 1,000 searches, with only one search per request. "The excitement around trying to make agents and vertical answer engines happen is pretty clear. We want to support it through Perplexity's search-grounded LLM API: the most affordable generative search API in the market right now," Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said. According to Perplexity, Sonar Pro was the best-performing model on 'factuality' in a benchmark called SimpleQA. It revealed that companies like Zoom benefit from Sonar Pro and said that the video-conferencing tool can offer "live, real-time, and private searches without having to exit the video call. "With its API, we are able to extend AI Companion's knowledge federation to include up-to-date web information without users having to shift through multiple links, right from inside a meeting or within workflows across Zoom Workplace," said Zoom CTO Xuedong Huang. Doximity, a research tool for doctors, used Perplexity's API to retrieve concise answers to medical questions. Jake Konoske, Doximity's director of product, said the API was fast and easy to integrate into the tool. "For physicians, we're proud to deliver these up-to-the-minute results along with our source filtering and proprietary content to provide accurate, cited clinical answers that improve patient care," he added. In December last year, the company closed its $500 million investment, which tripled its valuation to $9 billion. A few days ago, Srinivas announced plans to recruit talent to expand its presence in India. "I am looking to recruit someone to work together on growing Perplexity in India. It will be fun and intense. You must be based in India and willing to travel and meet with strategic partners and institutions -- scrappy startup mode," said Srinivas in a LinkedIn post.

Perplexity launches Sonar, an API for AI search | TechCrunch

Perplexity on Tuesday launched an API service called Sonar, allowing enterprises and developers to build the startup's generative AI search tools into their own applications. "While most generative AI features today have answers informed only by training data, this limits their capabilities," Perplexity wrote in a blog post. "To optimize for factuality and authority, APIs require a real-time connection to the Internet, with answers informed by trusted sources. " To start, Perplexity is offering two tiers that developers can choose from: a base version that's cheaper and faster, Sonar, and a pricier version that's better for tough questions, Sonar Pro. Perplexity says the Sonar API also gives enterprises and developers the ability to customize the sources its AI search engine pulls from. With the launch of its API, Perplexity is making its AI search engine available in more places than just its app and website. Perplexity says that Zoom, among other companies, is already using Sonar to power an AI assistant for its video conferencing platform. Sonar is allowing Zoom's AI chatbot to give real-time answers, informed by web searches with citations, without requiring users to leave the video chat window. Sonar could also give Perplexity another source of revenue, which could be particular important to the startup's investors. Perplexity only offers a subscription service for unlimited access to its AI search engine and some additional features. However, the tech industry has slashed prices to access AI tools via APIs in the last year, and Perplexity claims to be offering the cheapest AI search API on the market via Sonar. The base version of Sonar offers a cheaper and quicker version of the company's AI search tools. Sonar's base version has flat pricing and uses a lightweight model. It costs $5 for every 1,000 searches, plus $1 for every 750,000 words you type into the AI model (roughly 1 million input tokens), and another $1 for every 750,000 words the model spits out (roughly 1 million output tokens). The pricier Sonar Pro gives more-detailed answers and is capable of handling more-complex questions. This version will run multiple searches on top of a user prompt, meaning the pricing could be more unpredictable. Perplexity also says this version offers twice as many citations as the base version of Sonar. Sonar Pro costs $5 for every 1,000 searches, plus $3 for every 750,000 words you type into the AI model (roughly 1 million input tokens), and $15 for every 750,000 words the model spits out (roughly 1 million output tokens). Perplexity claims Sonar Pro outperformed leading models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic on a benchmark that measures factual correctness in AI chatbot answers, SimpleQA. As we recently reported, Perplexity's annual recurring revenue is somewhere between $5 million and $10 million. This seems fairly healthy for a startup of Perplexity's size and age, but the startup is certainly looking for new ways to grow its revenue. The startup raised an additional $73.6 million in a funding round earlier this month, valuing the company around $520 million.

Perplexity launches Sonar API for building applications with search capabilities - SiliconANGLE

Perplexity launches Sonar API for building applications with search capabilities Perplexity AI Inc. today introduced an application programming interface that will enable developers to embed search features into their applications. The API is available in two editions: Sonar and Sonar Pro. Both use the company's Sonar series of large language models to process search queries. The API's release comes two months after Perplexity reportedly raised $500 million in funding at a $9 billion valuation. Founded in 2022, Perplexity provides an AI-powered search engine of the same name. When users enter a query, the service doesn't return a list of webpage links but rather answers the question directly in natural language. Each prompt response includes citations to the webpages from which Perplexity gathered the retrieved information. The company generates revenue with a paid version, Perplexity Pro, that offers more features. A built-in code interpreter enables Perplexity Pro users to not only generate code but also run it. Meanwhile, a tool called Shop like a Pro makes it possible to make e-commerce purchases in one click through the search engine's interface. The API that Perplexity debuted today will provide the company with another way of monetizing its LLMs. The API's base edition, Sonar, is optimized for fast query response times and cost-efficiency. It's powered by a Perplexity-developed LLM of the same name with a context window of 127,000 tokens. This means users can include up to 127,000 tokens' worth of data in each prompt. Perplexity also offers a more capable version of its API, Sonar Pro, that is better at processing complex queries. It's powered by an LLM called Sonar Pro that has a context window of 200,000 tokens. It includes twice as many citations in prompt responses as the standard Sonar API to help users verify the accuracy of the retrieved information. Perplexity has not shared technical details about the LLMs that power its API. However, the company did disclose that one of the earlier models in the same LLM series is a customized version of Llama 3.1 70B. On launch, Perplexity provides a handful of customization options for API customers. Developers can customize the data sources on which the API draws to answer search queries. Users may also adjust the underlying LLMs' Top P and presence penalty settings, which help reduce nonsensical output and avoid duplicate content in prompt responses, respectively. The Sonar API is priced at $5 per 1,000 searches, plus $1 for every 750,000 words the LLM ingests or generates as output. Sonar Pro is billed at $3 per 750,000 words of input, while the same amount of output data costs $15. Perplexity says that thousands of developers are already using its API in software projects. The company claims that one customer, startup Copy.ai Inc., is using the service to save several hours of work per week for customers of its sales platform.

Perplexity launches Sonar API, taking aim at Google and OpenAI with real-time AI search

The move signals a significant shift in the AI landscape, as Perplexity -- now valued at $9 billion -- directly challenges larger competitors by making its real-time, web-connected search capabilities available to developers and enterprises. The company's dual-tier strategy -- offering both a lightweight Sonar service and a more robust Sonar Pro version -- targets different segments of the growing AI integration market. Sonar's real-time advantage: Bringing fresh data to enterprises Zoom has already integrated Sonar into its AI Companion 2.0 product, allowing users to access real-time information without leaving video conferences -- a capability that could reshape how businesses conduct remote meetings and research. The pricing structure appears designed to disrupt the market. Sonar's base tier costs $5 per 1,000 searches plus minimal token fees, while Sonar Pro, despite higher token costs, offers doubled citation density and multi-search capabilities for complex queries. What sets Sonar apart is its real-time web connection, a feature absent in many competing APIs that rely solely on training data. This approach could prove particularly valuable for enterprises requiring current information, though it may face challenges in applications requiring deterministic outputs. Disruptive pricing: Affordable AI search for the enterprise market The launch comes at a pivotal moment in the AI industry, where companies are increasingly seeking ways to integrate AI search capabilities into their products. With recent benchmarks showing Sonar Pro achieving an 85.8 F-score on the SimpleQA benchmark -- significantly outperforming GPT-4o and Claude -- Perplexity appears positioned to capitalize on growing enterprise demand for accurate, citation-backed AI responses. The timing of this launch comes as Perplexity demonstrates significant market momentum, having just secured a $500 million funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners, valuing the company at $9 billion. This strategy could prove particularly effective as enterprises increasingly prioritize AI tools that provide verifiable, current information over black-box solutions. For technical decision makers, Sonar's launch represents a new option in the AI toolkit, particularly for applications requiring real-time information access and citation tracking. However, the true test will be whether Perplexity can maintain its performance edge and pricing advantage as larger competitors inevitably adjust their strategies.