Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search vs StepFun: Step 5 Preview: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Verified 2026 FinOps benchmark comparing Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search (perplexity/sonar-pro-search) vs StepFun: Step 5 Preview (stepfun/step-5-preview). Simulate cache read multipliers, context cliffs, MAU bills, and P90 latency.
Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search (perplexity/sonar-pro-search) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $1.5/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
StepFun: Step 5 Preview (stepfun/step-5-preview) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for StepFun: Step 5 Preview: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $0.5/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search (API ID: perplexity/sonar-pro-search) vs StepFun: Step 5 Preview (API ID: stepfun/step-5-preview), StepFun: Step 5 Preview offers lower standard input pricing at $1/1M tokens ($2.7/1M output), while StepFun: Step 5 Preview leads in cached prefix economics at $0.5/1M tokens (50% discount). Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search achieves a 0ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (280ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search | StepFun: Step 5 Preview | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | perplexity/sonar-pro-search | stepfun/step-5-preview | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $3 / $15 | $1 / $2.7 | StepFun: Step 5 Preview |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $1.5/1M (50% Off) | $0.5/1M (50% Off) | StepFun: Step 5 Preview |
| Context Window / Max Output | 195K In / 8K Out | 1024K In / 63K Out | StepFun: Step 5 Preview |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search (-0ms) |
Exclusively available on the OpenRouter API, Sonar Pro's new Pro Search mode is Perplexity's most advanced agentic search system. It is designed for deeper reasoning and analysis.
Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work, built on a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture (27B active / 600B total parameters). It performs strongly in softwar
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🛰️Switch from Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search to StepFun: Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work, built on a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture (27B active / 600B total parameters). It performs strongly in softwar Verified P90 latency of 280ms.