Grok 4 vs Sonar
Side-by-side specs, pricing and capabilities. Both models run on Clade under one subscription, so you can switch between them in the same conversation.
Grok 4 comes from xAI and Sonar from Perplexity. The practical difference for most people is context, price, and which input types each one accepts.
Grok 4 holds more in a single conversation — 256K tokens against 128K — which matters for long documents and large codebases.
Sonar is the cheaper of the two on input tokens at $1.00 / 1M tokens.
| Specification | Grok 4 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Perplexity |
| Model ID | grok-4-0709 | sonar |
| Context window | 256K | 128K |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input price | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $1.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $1.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
| Input types | text, image, file, audio | text, image, file |
| Output types | text | text |
| Plan | Premium | Free |
Which should you use?
Pick Grok 4 when…
- You need the larger context window — 256K against 128K.
- You need audio input, which the other model does not accept.
Pick Sonar when…
- Cost matters: input runs at $1.00 / 1M tokens versus $3.00 / 1M tokens.
- You are on the free plan — this model is included without an upgrade.
Related comparisons
Try both on Clade
You do not have to choose. One Clade subscription gives you Grok 4, Sonar, and every other model on the platform.