gpt-oss-120b vs sonar-pro
gpt-oss-120b is 8.6× cheaper on input than sonar-pro.
| gpt-oss-120b | sonar-pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M | $0.35 | $3.00 |
| Cached input / 1M | — | — |
| Output / 1M | $0.75 | $15.00 |
| Context window | 131K | 200K |
| Max output | 33K | 8K |
| Provider | Cerebras | Perplexity |
| Vision | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Token count | estimated | estimated |
Capability for the money
Independent measurement · Artificial Analysis · read 2026-08-11gpt-oss-120b is 13.3× cheaper than sonar-pro and scores higher on every benchmark they share — there is no case for paying more here.
Coding
writing and fixing code
LiveCodeBenchgpt-oss-120b +60.3
Hard reasoning
graduate-level science and multi-step analysis
GPQA Diamondgpt-oss-120b +20.4
Averaged over the benchmarks both models sat, gpt-oss-120b returns 184.4 points of pass rate per dollar of blended price against 7.1 — the ratio that decides whether the dearer model earns its rate.
Each figure is a pass rate: the share of that test set the model answered correctly, measured by a third party rather than self-reported by the lab. Rows are different tests of different difficulty, so compare a model against the other model, not one row against the next. No published following instructions or tool use score for one of these models, so those lenses are omitted. And a benchmark is not your workload — it narrows the shortlist, it does not pick for you.
Which to pick
- Cheaper input: gpt-oss-120b
- Cheaper output: gpt-oss-120b
- Larger context: sonar-pro
- Better at coding: gpt-oss-120b (87.8% vs 27.5% on LiveCodeBench)
- Better at hard reasoning: gpt-oss-120b (78.2% vs 57.8% on GPQA Diamond)
List price is not production cost. Output length, cache hit rate, retries and task quality move the real number more than the headline rate does — price your own prompt on the token ledger before deciding.
Related comparisons
gpt-oss-120b detail · sonar-pro detail · All Cerebras pricing · All comparisons