Perplexity offers access to several advanced AI models, each with unique strengths tailored for different tasks. Here’s an overview of the main models and what they are best used for:
1. GPT-4o (OpenAI)
- Purpose: Multimodal, general-purpose language model.
- Strengths: Excels at real-time conversations, text and voice interactions, knowledge-based Q&A, summarization, code generation, and analysis of images, audio, and charts. It handles more than 50 languages, provides real-time translation, and remembers context over long conversations. Its vision and reasoning capabilities are particularly strong for multimodal and data-driven tasks.
- Features: Handles text, images, audio, and video; generates text and images; can analyze files and charts; supports speech-to-speech interactions and live translations.
2. Claude 4.0 Sonnet (Anthropic)
- Purpose: High-volume, high-intelligence use cases requiring advanced reasoning and error correction.
- Strengths: Especially good for complex instructions, coding (including planning, debugging, and large codebases), data analysis, customer support, and tool-assisted workflows. It supports nuanced conversation, complex planning, and extended memory. Its context window allows for processing large documents and conversations.
- Features: Superior at advanced reasoning, coding, and analysis; fast, scalable, and cost-effective for large-scale applications; improved at following complex instructions and error correction.
3. Sonar (Perplexity’s In-House Model)
- Purpose: Optimized for research and real-time web answers.
- Strengths: Rapid and reliable at searching the internet and synthesizing information efficiently. Designed for users looking for cited, up-to-date answers rather than deep generation or multimodal tasks.
- Features: Fast, accurate responses for research and search-based queries; optimized for information retrieval.
4. Additional/Legacy Models (if available to your tier):
- Open-Source Models and Specialized LLMs: Perplexity may provide access to other models such as Llama-3-based variants (e.g., Sonar Huge), or DeepSeek R1 for various research and experimental purposes.
- Customization: You may use different models for tasks like translation, coding, summarization, or creative content generation by selecting the option that best meets your needs for speed, cost, or depth of reasoning.
How Model Selection Works in Perplexity
- Pro subscribers have access to Perplexity’s model selector, allowing them to pick between OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.0, Perplexity’s Sonar, and others for each query, giving you control over the type of response and capabilities you want.
- Best Use Cases: For multimodal tasks or in-depth language understanding, use GPT-4o. For coding, advanced reasoning, and long or complex queries, use Claude 4.0 Sonnet. For fast, up-to-date factual responses and research, use Sonar or Sonar Huge.