Perplexity

What it does

Perplexity is a search-oriented AI assistant: you ask a question in plain language and it returns a written answer built from web results, with citations pointing to the pages it used. Beyond standard search, it offers Pro Search for more thorough queries, a Research mode that produces longer reports, file uploads for analysis, and a mode for creating documents and apps. The company also makes Comet, a browser with a built-in assistant, and a developer API billed pay-as-you-go. Perplexity runs on the web, has iOS and Android apps, and a desktop app for Windows and Mac.

Pricing and plans

The free plan covers basic searches with limits on advanced features (the help center lists a few Pro Searches per day and very limited Research use). Pro is shown at $17 per month billed annually on the pricing page and adds advanced models, model selection, higher upload limits and image and video generation. Max costs $200 per month or $2,000 per year according to the help center, with the highest limits and early access to new products. Verified students and educators can get Education Pro at $10 per month, and Enterprise Pro starts at $40 per seat per month. Prices may vary by region, billing channel (app stores) and tax.

Strengths and limits

Citations make it easier to check where a claim comes from than with a chatbot that answers from memory, but the summaries can still misread or oversimplify a source, so key facts should be verified. Paid limits are expressed as weekly or monthly averages rather than hard numbers for individual plans. The vendor states that Enterprise data is not used for training; individual users should review the privacy settings themselves. API usage is billed separately from subscriptions.