phi-4 vs Sonar
At a Glance
| Compare |  phi-4Microsoft |  SonarPerplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.070Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 21, 2026 | $1.00Openrouter ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.14Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 21, 2026 | $1.00Openrouter ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 16K | 128K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Aug 29, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | phi-4 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft | Perplexity |
| Family | Phi 4 | Sonar |
| Model | phi-4 | Sonar |
| Version | phi-4 | Sonar |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2024-12-12 | Unknown |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 16K | 128K |
| Total parameters | 14.7B | Unknown |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | mit | Unknown |
| Open weights | Yes | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) | Openrouter (Standard), Perplexity (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation | chat, citations, search |
phi-4 Capabilities
Sonar Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All text comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | phi-4Microsoft | cross-developer peerstext |
 Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | vs | phi-4Microsoft | cross-developer peerstext |
 DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek | vs | phi-4Microsoft | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peerstext |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | phi-4Microsoft | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | vs | phi-4Microsoft | cross-developer peerstext |
phi-4Microsoft | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
phi-4 vs Sonar FAQs
Is phi-4 or Sonar better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both phi-4 and Sonar, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, phi-4 or Sonar?+
phi-4 is $0.070 and Sonar is $1.00 per million tokens, so phi-4 is cheaper on this metric. phi-4 is $0.14 and Sonar is $1.00 per million tokens, so phi-4 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, phi-4 or Sonar?+
Sonar has the larger sourced context window. phi-4 supports 16K and Sonar supports 128K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, phi-4 or Sonar?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can phi-4 or Sonar be self-hosted?+
phi-4 is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. phi-4 is open weight; Sonar is not marked open weight.
Can phi-4 and Sonar understand images?+
phi-4 is not documented with image input; Sonar is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, phi-4 or Sonar?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. phi-4 is — and Sonar is —.
Do phi-4 and Sonar support reasoning and tool use?+
phi-4: none of these features are definitively sourced. Sonar: none of these features are definitively sourced. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, phi-4 or Sonar?+
phi-4 has 3 sourced provider routes; Sonar has 2, so phi-4 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, phi-4 or Sonar?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.