Provider: Perplexity

Respan supports both Perplexity Sonar models and the Perplexity Agent API while keeping unified observability for logs, cost, latency, and reliability.

The Agent API can call Perplexity’s own Sonar model or third-party models offered by Perplexity. Through Respan, use an explicit model or a nonempty fallback chain; preset-only requests do not pass the current model validation.

Quick setup

Send your first request

After configuring your Perplexity credentials in Respan, pick the integration that matches your stack. The base URL is https://api.respan.ai/api and your application authenticates with RESPAN_API_KEY.

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    api_key="YOUR_RESPAN_API_KEY",
    base_url="https://api.respan.ai/api",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="perplexity/sonar-pro",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Perplexity!"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Use Perplexity Agent API

Perplexity’s Agent API uses the OpenAI Responses shape. The route is activated only by the X-Respan-Route-Provider: perplexity header. These examples call Perplexity’s own Sonar model, perplexity/sonar.

import os
import requests
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.respan.ai/api/responses",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['RESPAN_API_KEY']}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "X-Respan-Route-Provider": "perplexity",
    },
    json={
        "model": "perplexity/sonar",
        "input": "Research recent advances in retrieval-augmented generation.",
        "max_steps": 1,
        "respan_params": {
            "credential_override": {
                "": {
                    "api_key": os.environ["PERPLEXITY_API_KEY"],
                }
            }
        },
    },
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json()["output"])

This request uses RESPAN_API_KEY for Respan authentication and PERPLEXITY_API_KEY as a request-scoped provider credential. You can omit respan_params.credential_override if Perplexity is already configured under Gateway → API keys → Bring your own key, or when managed Perplexity credentials are available through Respan credits for the Agent API route.

The response reports the model returned by Perplexity and its authoritative USD cost. Set stream: true for Responses API server-sent events, or use models for an ordered fallback chain. Respan requires an explicit model or a nonempty fallback chain; preset-only requests do not pass its model validation.

For third-party model choices, see Perplexity’s Agent API model list. Requests to those models still use the Perplexity route header and Perplexity credentials.

See the Responses API guide for all request shapes, Agent API parameters, header rules, logging, and billing behavior.

More integrations

Perplexity models work with every Respan gateway integration:

• OpenAI SDK
• OpenAI Agents SDK
• LangChain
• LangGraph
• LlamaIndex
• Pydantic AI
• Respan native (OTel)

Switch models

Change the model parameter to call any supported model through the same client. Use the perplexity/ prefix to disambiguate when routing across providers. Browse the full list on the Models page.

client.chat.completions.create(model="perplexity/sonar", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="perplexity/sonar-pro", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="perplexity/sonar-reasoning-pro", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="openai/gpt-6-sol", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="anthropic/claude-opus-5-5", messages=messages)

Use your own Perplexity key (BYOK)

Perplexity Sonar models require your own Perplexity credentials. Configure them in Respan or pass them with each request using one of the options below.

Override credentials per model (Optional)

Use credential_override when one model on a request should use a different Perplexity key than the default.

{
  "customer_credentials": {
    "perplexity": { "api_key": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY" }
  },
  "credential_override": {
    "perplexity/sonar-pro": { "api_key": "ANOTHER_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY" }
  }
}

Log without proxying (Optional)

Already calling Perplexity directly? Send logs to Respan asynchronously to track cost, latency, and performance for those external calls.

import requests
requests.post(
    "https://api.respan.ai/api/request-logs/create/",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_RESPAN_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "model": "perplexity/sonar-pro",
        "prompt_messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, how are you?"}],
        "completion_message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hello from Perplexity through Respan."},
        "cost": 0.001,
        "generation_time": 1.2,
        "customer_params": {"customer_identifier": "user_123"},
    },
)

See the logging guide for the full setup.