Perplexity Pro vs SearchGPT: The Cost of Information

perplexity-pro vs searchgpt
Complete Comparison: 1,000 input tokens × 300 output tokens
Comparison Mode

Complete comparison of pricing, performance, and capabilities for 2 leading AI models .

Comparison Criteria perplexity-pro
Perplexity
searchgpt
OpenAI
Calculation Results (Current Inputs)
Input Tokens N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Output Tokens N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Cost Breakdown
Input Cost N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Output Cost N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Unit Cost (Audio/OCR) $0.000000 $0.000000
Service Fees $0.000000 $0.000000
Total Cost $0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01) Most Expensive $0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01) Best Value
Processing Time 3.43 seconds Slowest 2.78 seconds Fastest
Tokens per Second N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Time to First Token 200ms 200ms
Cost per 1K tokens N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Tokens per Dollar N/A (Special Pricing) N/A (Special Pricing)
Cost per 1 Million Tokens (Informational)
Information not available - No token-based models in this comparison
Capabilities & Advanced Features
Tool Usage Support ✓ Supported ✗ Not Supported
Scroll horizontally to see all data

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Select AI Model

Perplexity Pro
PerplexityMax Context: 200,000 tokens
$3 / $15 per 1M tokens
▼
▼
Use Batch API (50% discount)
0%
Provider-specific multipliers applied after all calculations
Enable for cache discounts
Select platform to enforce context limits
Number of requests (max 1M). Summary view auto-enabled >10k.

Calculate Token Costs

$0.007500 Total Cost
$0.003000 Input Cost
$0.004500 Output Cost
$0.000000 Unit Cost
$0.000000 Search Cost
$0.000000 Request Fee
$0.000000 Tool Fee
$0.000000 Code Execution
1,300Total Tokens
$0.005769Cost per 1K
173,333Tokens per $
📊 Advanced Cost Breakdown

Processing Speed

3.43s Processing Time
400 Tokens/Second
200ms Time to First Token
400 Effective Speed

Model Comparison

Select a model to see comparisons with competitors.

Model Information

Select a model to see detailed information.

🔄 Advanced Options

⚡ Optimization
Flat fee per session (e.g., $0.03 for Code Interpreter)
Hourly storage fee for cached data
First 50 hours free, $0.05/hour after
🧠 Reasoning & Thinking
Manual thinking tokens (billed at output rate)
🔧 Special Modes
Enable 6.0x Fast Mode multiplier
📚 Research & Citations
Enable $1.00/$4.00 rates + $10.00/1k search
Enable research tier pricing
Fee per source cited
🎤 Realtime Audio & Video
Session length for billing
📊 Multiple Models Detected: This page contains data for 2 models. See the detailed comparison table above, and switch between models using tabs below.

perplexity-pro Perplexity

$0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
Total Cost
🔧 Tools
👁️
Vision/Images
✗ Not Available
🎧
Audio Processing
✗ Not Available
🎥
Video Analysis
✗ Not Available
🔧
Tool Usage
✓ Available
📄
OCR Support
✗ Not Available
📊
Batch API
✗ Not Available
⚡
Caching
✗ Not Available

💰 Total Cost Calculation (from Plugin)

Base Cost (No Optimizations) $0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01) Input: $0.003000
Output: $0.004500
Optimized Cost $0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01) Input: $0.003000
Output: $0.004500
Unit: $0.000000
Fees: $0.000000

Detailed Cost Analysis (from Plugin)

For 1,000 input tokens and 300 output tokens:

  • Input Cost: $0.003000
  • Output Cost: $0.004500
  • Total Cost: $0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
  • Cost per 1K tokens: $0.005769 (rounded ~ $0.01)
  • Tokens per dollar: 173,333 tokens
  • Context Window: 200000 tokens

Speed & Performance Analysis

With a processing speed of 400 tokens per second and 200ms time to first token:

  • Processing Time: 3.43 seconds
  • Latency: 200 milliseconds to first token
  • Base Throughput: 400 tokens/second

Best Use Cases

Market ResearchFact CheckingGeneral Search

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This calculator shows the math for perplexity-pro. Your decision needs more — current infrastructure, compliance requirements, actual workload patterns, volume tiers — that change which model is right for you.

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searchgpt OpenAI

$0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01)
Total Cost
🔧 Tools
👁️
Vision/Images
✗ Not Available
🎧
Audio Processing
✗ Not Available
🎥
Video Analysis
✗ Not Available
🔧
Tool Usage
✗ Not Available requested
📄
OCR Support
✗ Not Available
📊
Batch API
✗ Not Available
⚡
Caching
✗ Not Available

💰 Total Cost Calculation (from Plugin)

Base Cost (No Optimizations) $0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01) Input: $0.002000
Output: $0.003600
Optimized Cost $0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01) Input: $0.002000
Output: $0.003600
Unit: $0.000000
Fees: $0.000000

Detailed Cost Analysis (from Plugin)

For 1,000 input tokens and 300 output tokens:

  • Input Cost: $0.002000
  • Output Cost: $0.003600
  • Total Cost: $0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01)
  • Cost per 1K tokens: $0.004308
  • Tokens per dollar: 232,143 tokens
  • Context Window: 32768 tokens

Speed & Performance Analysis

With a processing speed of 500 tokens per second and 200ms time to first token:

  • Processing Time: 2.78 seconds
  • Latency: 200 milliseconds to first token
  • Base Throughput: 500 tokens/second

Best Use Cases

Market ResearchFact CheckingGeneral Search

Want this applied to YOUR actual stack?

This calculator shows the math for searchgpt. Your decision needs more — current infrastructure, compliance requirements, actual workload patterns, volume tiers — that change which model is right for you.

Get a $39 personalized AI Architecture Audit. PDF tailored to your stack, delivered in under 60 seconds. 7-day no-questions-asked refund.

Get my instant AI audit — $39 →

✨ Market Recommendations AI Model Registry

← Back to perplexity-pro
📋 Active Input Parameters
Input Tokens: 1,000
Output Tokens: 300
Tools: Enabled
Rank AI Model & Provider Total Cost vs perplexity-pro vs searchgpt
🏆 Mistral Small 3
Mistral AI
 $0.000190 Best Value ↓ 97.5% cheaper ↓ 96.6% cheaper
🥈 Llama 4 Maverick (400B)
Meta AI
 $0.000330 ↓ 95.6% cheaper ↓ 94.1% cheaper
🥉 Grok Code Fast 1
xAI
 $0.000650 ↓ 91.3% cheaper ↓ 88.4% cheaper
#4 Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
Google
 $0.000700 ↓ 90.7% cheaper ↓ 87.5% cheaper
#5 Mistral Large 3
Mistral AI
 $0.000950 ↓ 87.3% cheaper ↓ 83% cheaper
#6 Gemini 2.5 Flash
Google
 $0.001050 ↓ 86% cheaper ↓ 81.3% cheaper
#7 Gemini 3.1 Flash
Google
 $0.001400 ↓ 81.3% cheaper ↓ 75% cheaper
#8 Kimi K2.5
Moonshot AI
 $0.001500 ↓ 80% cheaper ↓ 73.2% cheaper
#9 Grok 4.3
xAI
 $0.002000 ↓ 73.3% cheaper ↓ 64.3% cheaper
#10 GPT-5.4 mini
OpenAI
 $0.002100 ↓ 72% cheaper ↓ 62.5% cheaper
#11 Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AI
 $0.002150 ↓ 71.3% cheaper ↓ 61.6% cheaper
#12 o4-mini Deep Research
OpenAI
 $0.002200 ↓ 70.7% cheaper ↓ 60.7% cheaper
#13 o4-mini
OpenAI
 $0.002420 ↓ 67.7% cheaper ↓ 56.8% cheaper
#14 Claude Haiku 4.5
Anthropic
 $0.002500 ↓ 66.7% cheaper ↓ 55.4% cheaper
#15 Grok 4.20 Beta
xAI
 $0.003800 ↓ 49.3% cheaper ↓ 32.1% cheaper
#16 Gemini 3.5 Flash
Google
 $0.004200 ↓ 44% cheaper ↓ 25% cheaper
#17 Gemini 2.5 Pro
Google
 $0.004250 ↓ 43.3% cheaper ↓ 24.1% cheaper
#18 Sonar Deep Research
Perplexity
 $0.004400 ↓ 41.3% cheaper ↓ 21.4% cheaper
#19 Gemini 3.1 Pro
Google
 $0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↓ 25.3% cheaper Same price
#20 GPT-5.3 Codex Spark
OpenAI
 $0.005950 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↓ 20.7% cheaper ↑ 6.2% more
#21 GPT-5.3 Instant
OpenAI
 $0.005950 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↓ 20.7% cheaper ↑ 6.2% more
#22 GPT-5.4
OpenAI
 $0.007000 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↓ 6.7% cheaper ↑ 25% more
#23 GPT-5.4 Thinking
OpenAI
 $0.007000 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↓ 6.7% cheaper ↑ 25% more
#24 Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic
 $0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01) Same price ↑ 33.9% more
#25 Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic
 $0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↑ 66.7% more ↑ 123.2% more
#26 Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic
 $0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↑ 66.7% more ↑ 123.2% more
#27 Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic
 $0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↑ 66.7% more ↑ 123.2% more
#28 GPT-5.5
OpenAI
 $0.014000 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↑ 86.7% more ↑ 150% more
#29 GPT-5.5 Instant
OpenAI
 $0.014000 (rounded ~ $0.01) ↑ 86.7% more ↑ 150% more
#30 Sonar Pro
Perplexity
 $0.017500 (rounded ~ $0.02) ↑ 133.3% more ↑ 212.5% more
#31 o3 Deep Research
OpenAI
 $0.022000 (rounded ~ $0.02) ↑ 193.3% more ↑ 292.9% more
#32 o3 Pro
OpenAI
 $0.044000 (rounded ~ $0.04) ↑ 486.7% more ↑ 685.7% more
#33 GPT-5.2 Pro
OpenAI
 $0.071400 (rounded ~ $0.07) ↑ 852% more ↑ 1175% more
#34 GPT-5.5 Pro
OpenAI
 $0.084000 (rounded ~ $0.08) ↑ 1020% more ↑ 1400% more
#35 GPT-5.5 Pro
OpenAI
 $0.084000 (rounded ~ $0.08) ↑ 1020% more ↑ 1400% more
🏆

Mistral Small 3
Mistral AI

$0.000190
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 97.5%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 96.6%
🥈

Llama 4 Maverick (400B)
Meta AI

$0.000330
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 95.6%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 94.1%
🥉

Grok Code Fast 1
xAI

$0.000650
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 91.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 88.4%
#4

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
Google

$0.000700
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 90.7%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 87.5%
#5

Mistral Large 3
Mistral AI

$0.000950
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 87.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 83%
#6

Gemini 2.5 Flash
Google

$0.001050
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 86%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 81.3%
#7

Gemini 3.1 Flash
Google

$0.001400
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 81.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 75%
#8

Kimi K2.5
Moonshot AI

$0.001500
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 80%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 73.2%
#9

Grok 4.3
xAI

$0.002000
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 73.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 64.3%
#10

GPT-5.4 mini
OpenAI

$0.002100
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 72%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 62.5%
#11

Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AI

$0.002150
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 71.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 61.6%
#12

o4-mini Deep Research
OpenAI

$0.002200
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 70.7%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 60.7%
#13

o4-mini
OpenAI

$0.002420
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 67.7%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 56.8%
#14

Claude Haiku 4.5
Anthropic

$0.002500
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 66.7%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 55.4%
#15

Grok 4.20 Beta
xAI

$0.003800
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 49.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 32.1%
#16

Gemini 3.5 Flash
Google

$0.004200
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 44%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 25%
#17

Gemini 2.5 Pro
Google

$0.004250
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 43.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 24.1%
#18

Sonar Deep Research
Perplexity

$0.004400
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 41.3%
vs searchgpt: ↓ 21.4%
#19

Gemini 3.1 Pro
Google

$0.005600 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 25.3%
vs searchgpt: Same
#20

GPT-5.3 Codex Spark
OpenAI

$0.005950 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 20.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 6.2%
#21

GPT-5.3 Instant
OpenAI

$0.005950 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 20.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 6.2%
#22

GPT-5.4
OpenAI

$0.007000 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 6.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 25%
#23

GPT-5.4 Thinking
OpenAI

$0.007000 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↓ 6.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 25%
#24

Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic

$0.007500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: Same
vs searchgpt: ↑ 33.9%
#25

Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic

$0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 66.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 123.2%
#26

Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic

$0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 66.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 123.2%
#27

Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic

$0.012500 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 66.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 123.2%
#28

GPT-5.5
OpenAI

$0.014000 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 86.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 150%
#29

GPT-5.5 Instant
OpenAI

$0.014000 (rounded ~ $0.01)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 86.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 150%
#30

Sonar Pro
Perplexity

$0.017500 (rounded ~ $0.02)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 133.3%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 212.5%
#31

o3 Deep Research
OpenAI

$0.022000 (rounded ~ $0.02)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 193.3%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 292.9%
#32

o3 Pro
OpenAI

$0.044000 (rounded ~ $0.04)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 486.7%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 685.7%
#33

GPT-5.2 Pro
OpenAI

$0.071400 (rounded ~ $0.07)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 852%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 1175%
#34

GPT-5.5 Pro
OpenAI

$0.084000 (rounded ~ $0.08)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 1020%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 1400%
#35

GPT-5.5 Pro
OpenAI

$0.084000 (rounded ~ $0.08)
vs perplexity-pro: ↑ 1020%
vs searchgpt: ↑ 1400%
✨ How recommendations work (v8.6.0): We scan all active models in the registry and only include those that support ALL your current inputs. For token-based models, we check if they can handle your token counts. For special pricing models (OCR, video, audio), we verify they have the correct pricing structure. Features marked requested were in your inputs but not supported by that model. Now using official provider pricing without reseller markups.

The New Search Engine Economics

Search is no longer free. We compare the ‘Cost per Query’ for AI Search leaders. This analysis factors in the citations, real-time data accuracy, and the ‘Ads-Free’ premium of Perplexity vs the deep ecosystem integration of OpenAI’s SearchGPT.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate are these AI model cost calculations?
Our calculations are based on official pricing from each provider (Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, xAI, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Mistral) and are updated regularly. We account for all factors including multimodal inputs, caching discounts, batch API pricing, tool usage multipliers, OCR processing, audio minutes, silence fees, and research mode pricing. Note: Reseller markups and dedicated instance multipliers have been removed to reflect official provider pricing.
How do Market Recommendations work (v8.6.0)?
Our recommendation engine scans the entire model registry and only includes models that support ALL your current input parameters (tokens, images, video, audio, OCR, tools, batch API, etc.). It calculates exact costs with your settings and sorts by price, showing you the best value options that can handle your complete workflow. Special pricing models (OCR, video, audio, image generation) are properly handled and only appear when their specific input types are requested. v8.6.0 removes reseller markups (20% buffer) and dedicated instance multipliers to reflect official provider pricing.
What is the YemHub AI Calculator Tool?
The YemHub AI Calculator is the most comprehensive tool for estimating costs and comparing performance metrics across 50+ AI models. It calculates token-based pricing, analyzes multimodal processing, accounts for state-dependent pricing (context cliffs, tiered tunnels), provides optimization recommendations, and now offers intelligent market matching to find the best alternatives for your specific needs.