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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs Sonar Pro

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) comes out ahead, 36 to 20 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)

    Released Jan 2024

    36/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.40
    • Context8K
    Full specs Remove Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)

  2. Perplexity

    Sonar Pro

    Released Jan 1, 2024

    20/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Sonar Pro

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) is our pick

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) is the better all-round choice, scoring 36/100 against Sonar Pro (20). It leads on price. Sonar Pro wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen Plus Character (Japanese)Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) $0.725 · Sonar Pro $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSonar ProSonar Pro 200,000 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 8,192 tokens
  • Widest inputsSonar ProQwen Plus Character (Japanese): Text · Sonar Pro: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen Plus Character (Japanese)Sonar Pro
Price50%5713
Inputs & features30%2525
Context window20%032
Overall100%36/10020/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs Sonar Pro specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen Plus Character (Japanese)Alibaba (Qwen)Sonar ProPerplexity
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50 (best)$3.00
Output$1.40 (best)$15.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.725 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Perplexity API
Limits
Context window8,192 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output512 tokens8,192 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen-plus-character-jasonar-pro
API providers15 (best)
ReleasedJan 2024Jan 1, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Sep 1, 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)$7.80
  • Sonar Pro$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or Sonar Pro?

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) is the better all-round choice, scoring 36/100 against Sonar Pro (20). It leads on price. Sonar Pro wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or Sonar Pro?

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Sonar Pro costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.725 per million tokens for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) versus $6.00 for Sonar Pro (8.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) has not been scored yet and Sonar Pro has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Sonar Pro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar Pro does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Sonar Pro has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 8,192 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese). Maximum output per response: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) up to 512, Sonar Pro up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) accepts text; Sonar Pro accepts text and images. Sonar Pro handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Sonar Pro are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) is the newest, released Jan 2024. Sonar Pro came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) Apr 2024, Sonar Pro Sep 1, 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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