Processing or generating 2,500 words (approximately 3,333 tokens) with Perplexity Sonar ranges from $0.000833 (cached input) to $0.003333 (full generation).
Quick answer
For 2,500 words, Perplexity Sonar processes approximately 3,333 tokens. That costs $0.003333 as uncached input, $0.000833 with the modeled cache discount, or $0.003333 when generated as output.
Method & trust
The estimate converts the selected English word count with the model tokenizer family, then applies the published input/output price per million tokens. Real prompts vary with code, formatting, language, and system instructions.
You send 2,500 words as prompt context, documentation, or background knowledge.
Perplexity Sonar drafts a complete 2,500 words article, chapter, or code module.
2,000 words input prompt + 500 words output reply.
| Model | Provider | Input Cost (2,500 words) | Cached Input Cost | Output Cost (2,500 words) | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity Sonar (Current) | perplexity | $0.003333 | $0.000833 | $0.003333 | 128,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | openai | $0.00064 | $0.000064 | $0.00384 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | openai | $0.0024 | $0.00024 | $0.0144 | 256,000 |
| GPT-5.4 nano | openai | $0.00064 | $0.000064 | $0.004 | 128,000 |
| GPT-4o mini | openai | $0.00048 | $0.00024 | $0.00192 | 128,000 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | anthropic | $0.0033 | $0.00033 | $0.0165 | 1,000,000 |
For Perplexity Sonar (tiktoken_cl100k tokenizer), 2,500 words is approximately 3,333 tokens (an average ratio of 1.33 tokens per word in English). Code, technical vocabulary, and non-English scripts will have higher token densities.
Sending 2,500 words as input costs $0.003333 (or $0.000833 with prompt caching). Generating 2,500 words as output costs $0.003333. Output tokens are more expensive because autoregressive token generation requires significantly more computation per token.
Yes! If your input text is part of a repeated context, prompt caching saves 50% to 90% (costing $0.000833). For non-urgent asynchronous batch processing, 24-hour batch queues provide a flat 50% discount across all tokens (costing $0.001667 for input, $0.001667 for output).
At an average human reading speed of 250 words per minute, 2,500 words takes approximately 10 minutes to read. In contrast, Perplexity Sonar can process or generate this text in seconds.