Sonar vs Aya Expanse 32B
Aya Expanse 32B comes out ahead, 33 to 30 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
PerplexitySonar
30/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
- Our pick
CohereAya Expanse 32B
33/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Aya Expanse 32B is our pick
Aya Expanse 32B is the better all-round choice, scoring 33/100 against Sonar (30). It leads on price. 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 priceAya Expanse 32BAya Expanse 32B $0.75 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameSonar 128,000 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsSonar: Text · Aya Expanse 32B: Text
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 32BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Sonar | Aya Expanse 32B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 50 | 56 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 30/100 | 33/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | SonarPerplexity | Aya Expanse 32BCohere |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.00 | $0.50 (best) |
| Output | $1.00 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.00 | $0.75 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Perplexity API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens (best) | 4,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | No |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 |
| API model ID | sonar | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b |
| API providers | 6 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Jan 1, 2024 | Oct 24, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 1, 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Sonar$12.00
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Sonar or Aya Expanse 32B?
Aya Expanse 32B is the better all-round choice, scoring 33/100 against Sonar (30). It leads on price. 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, Sonar or Aya Expanse 32B?
Aya Expanse 32B is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.75 per million tokens for Aya Expanse 32B versus $1.00 for Sonar (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Sonar has not been scored yet and Aya Expanse 32B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Sonar and Aya Expanse 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar and Aya Expanse 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Sonar and Aya Expanse 32B share the same 128,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Sonar up to 4,096, Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Sonar accepts text; Aya Expanse 32B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Expanse 32B publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Sonar is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Aya Expanse 32B is the newest, released Oct 24, 2024. Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Sonar 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.
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