Perplexity
Perplexity AI · AI Search Engine
An AI-powered search engine that provides real-time answers with cited sources, plus deep research, agentic tools, and a developer API platform.
Best for
Fact-checking, current events research, and cited answers
Not ideal for
Open-ended creative writing or IDE-integrated coding
Who it's for
Researchers and knowledge workers who need fast, source-cited answers from the live web
Capabilities
- Real-time web search integration
- Cited sources for all answers
- Follow-up question suggestions
- Source selection (web, academic, social, and more)
- Deep Research for multi-step cited reports
- Spaces for organizing research threads and files
- Choice of frontier models on paid plans
- Developer APIs: Agent API, Search API, and an MCP server
Limitations
- Less conversational than pure chat AIs
- Answer quality depends on the sources retrieved — citations still need checking
- Limited creative writing capabilities
- Pro features require a $20/month subscription
- The Sonar Chat Completions API is being replaced by the Agent API (Sonar supported until September 27, 2026)
Use cases
- Current events research
- Academic literature review
- Fact-checking claims
- Market research
- Technical documentation lookup
- Product research and comparisons
- News summarization
- Scientific research
Perplexity pricing
Free
Free
Billed monthly
- Cited search with real-time web retrieval
- Follow-up questions within a thread
Pro
$20/month
Billed monthly
- Choice of frontier models per query
- Deep Research with higher limits
- File uploads
- Image generation
Max
$200/month
Billed monthly
- Highest usage limits for individuals
- Early access to new features
Enterprise Pro
$40/month per seat
Billed monthly
Enterprise Max
$325/month per seat
Billed monthly
Note: Annual billing: Pro $200/year, Enterprise Pro $400/year per seat, Enterprise Max $3,250/year per seat. Pro and Enterprise prices vendor-verified 2026-06-11. API is billed separately: Search API $5 per 1,000 requests; Agent API at model token rates plus tool fees.
Technical specs
API pricing
Agent API at provider token rates plus tool fees (Sonar per-token pricing until September 27, 2026); Search API $5 per 1,000 requests
Integrations & fit
About Perplexity
Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that combines large language models with real-time web retrieval to produce cited, sourced answers. Unlike traditional search engines that return a list of links, Perplexity reads and synthesises content from across the web and presents a direct answer alongside the sources it drew from. This makes it significantly faster for research tasks where you would otherwise open and skim multiple tabs. Users can choose which sources to search (such as the web, academic papers, or social discussions), organise research into Spaces, and run Deep Research for longer, multi-step reports. Perplexity Pro adds a choice of frontier models from several providers, file uploads, image generation, and much higher limits, and a Max tier serves the heaviest users. It supports follow-up questions within a thread, allowing users to iteratively refine their research without starting over. For developers, the API platform now centres on the Agent API (which replaces the older Sonar Chat Completions API), a Search API, and an MCP server. The citation model is one of its strongest features — each claim links back to the source, making it easier to verify information than with uncited AI outputs. It is best used for factual research, topic overviews, and any task where source transparency matters.
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