Ease of use
9.2
Onboarding, navigation, and day-to-day workflow friction.

AI Search Engines
AI answer engine for cited search, deep research, and multi-model analysis.
Perplexity: AI answer engine for cited search, deep research, and multi-model analysis. Pricing: From $16.67/mo billed annually. Best for Fast cited web research and current-awareness work and Summarizing documents, code, audio, and video attachments.
Tool scorecard
A standardized tool profile score across usability, pricing value, feature depth, and support quality.
Tool score
8.6
/ 10Ease of use
9.2
Onboarding, navigation, and day-to-day workflow friction.
Value for money
8.5
How much practical capability the product delivers for the price.
Features
9.1
Breadth, polish, and depth across the core product surface.
Support
7.8
Docs, help channels, and how easily issues get resolved.
Overview
Perplexity is an AI answer engine for web-backed research, cited answers, source discovery, and fast synthesis across current information. It is best for researchers, operators, analysts, students, and teams that want a search-first assistant rather than a blank chat box.
Its strongest fit is narrowing a topic quickly: scanning a market, checking facts, comparing sources, finding recent context, or building a starting brief with links attached. The caveat is that citations do not remove editorial responsibility. Users still need to open important sources, verify sensitive claims, and understand when generated synthesis may flatten nuance or miss primary evidence.
Use Perplexity when the workflow begins with research and source navigation. Keep consumer subscriptions, enterprise search, browser use, and API access as separate buying paths, especially when answers will feed business decisions or product features.
Pricing
Pricing routes
Use these route cards to separate app subscriptions, API meters, team workspaces, and enterprise purchasing without flattening them into a single plan table. Open the pricing page for detailed plan or API meter facts.
From $16.67/mo
Users buy Perplexity through Free, Pro, and Max app subscriptions with search and research allowances.
Usage-based API
Sonar API access is metered separately for developers and is not included in app subscription allowances.
From $34/seat/mo
Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max use organizational plans with higher research and assistant limits.
$0/mo
Annual billing: $0/mo ($0 billed yearly)
Usage: Practically unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches/day, 1 Research query/month
$20/mo
Annual billing: $16.67/mo ($200 billed yearly)
Usage: Up to 200 Pro queries/week, 20 Deep Research/month, 25 assets/month, 3 videos/month
$40/mo
Annual billing: $33.33/mo ($400 billed yearly)
Usage: 400 Pro queries/week, 50 Deep Research/month, 80 Comet Assistant queries/month
$200/mo
Annual billing: $166.67/mo ($2,000 billed yearly)
Usage: Highest consumer access to advanced models, Max Assistant, and new features
$325/mo
Annual billing: $270.83/mo ($3,250 billed yearly)
Usage: 4000 Pro queries/week, 500 Deep Research/month, 800 Comet Assistant queries/month
Input types
text, image, audio, video, code, file
Output types
text, image, video, code, file
Supported platforms
Web, iOS, Android, Mac
Delivery modes
Web app, Mobile app, Desktop app, API
Company
Perplexity AI, Inc.
Founded
2022
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Category
AI Search Engines
FAQ
Yes. Perplexity offers a free plan with practically unlimited basic searches, limited Pro Searches, and limited Research access.
Perplexity Pro adds advanced model choice, more citations per answer, Research, Create files and apps, larger upload limits, image generation, limited video generation, and faster support channels.
Yes. Perplexity sells a separate usage-based API that includes Search API endpoints, Sonar model families, and Agent API tool charges. API usage is billed separately from app subscriptions.
Perplexity runs on the web and mobile apps, and Comet extends the product to Mac and Windows browser workflows. Developers can also use the API platform.
Perplexity states that Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max data is not used for model training by Perplexity or its third-party LLM partners.
Recent updates
feature
September 25, 2025Launched Search API access so developers can buy raw search results and related developer tooling separately from the consumer app.
feature
July 9, 2025Introduced Comet, Perplexity's AI browser and assistant workflow surface.
feature
February 14, 2025Introduced Deep Research, a longer-form multi-step research mode that performs many searches and returns a synthesized report.
feature
April 23, 2024Launched Enterprise Pro for organizations that need private search, admin controls, and business collaboration features.
Decision rail
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Last verified May 26, 2026
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