Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Sonar
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
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PerplexitySummary
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 21.1.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Perplexity | |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 38.5 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2024-01-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.75 | $1 |
| Results tracked | 46 | 7 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | — |
| SciCode | 52.7% | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| CritPt | 10.6% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
| DTBench | 95.5% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 44.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |
Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | — |
Knowledge Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | — |
| LMArena French | 1504 | — |
| LMArena German | 1478 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | — |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Sonar?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Sonar?
Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Sonar better for coding?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Sonar share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.