Our take
Perplexity sells one family of search-grounded models, its own Sonar line, and nothing you can download. You reach it directly, so the only real decision is which tier fits the job.
Use it when an answer has to be grounded in live web results rather than a static model, or when prompts must not be retained and a security attestation has to be on hand. The plain Sonar tier is the cheapest way in, with the reasoning and search tiers costing more on both sides. Skip it if you need to run the model yourself, if a European endpoint is a requirement, or if you need measured quality or speed figures before choosing a tier.
- Prompts are not used for training and a zero-retention option exists, which is what makes it usable for confidential or regulated queries.
- An independent security attestation is in place, so a security review has evidence to work from rather than a vendor claim.
- Its tiers form a clear ladder, with the plain Sonar model the cheapest and the reasoning and search tiers costing more on both sides, so you can start low and move up only if the job needs it.
- We list no download for it, so using it means reaching it through an API and paying per token rather than running it yourself.
- No European endpoint is listed, so a data-residency requirement cannot be confirmed from what we hold.
- No benchmark score or throughput measurement is present, so the tiers can only be compared on price, not on output quality.
Point your tools here
We have not recorded what a router needs for Perplexity yet — no base URL and no docs link on file. That is our gap, not a sign Perplexity has no API; its own documentation is the place to look until we close it.
Privacy & data handling
These answers cover requests sent to Perplexity through OpenRouter, as OpenRouter records them, last read 58 min ago. For Perplexity's own API we hold no answer: check its terms. SOC 2 and the data processing agreement below are hand-checked, not part of that sync.
We have not dated this attestation or linked the report yet.
Prompt retention: none.