Perplexity AI
Answer engine that cites its sources, now with a browser and an agent
Overview
Perplexity is an AI answer engine from Perplexity AI, Inc. in San Francisco that runs a live web search for each query and cites its sources inline. It also offers Comet, a free AI browser, and Perplexity Computer, a credit-metered agent for multi-step work, on Pro, Max and Enterprise plans.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 14 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Citations in every answer
- Access to basic AI models
- Limited daily usage
- 4,000 bonus Computer credits
- Deep research
- Choose between top AI models
- Create documents and apps
- Everything in Pro
- Learn Mode
- 10,000 monthly Computer credits plus 35,000 bonus
- Frontier AI models and expert-level research
- Priority access to new features
- 500 monthly Computer credits per seat
- No training on your data
- SSO; SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR and PCI DSS compliance
- 15,000 monthly Computer credits per seat
- Compare responses across multiple AI models
- SCIM, audit logs and data retention settings
API pricing (pay as you go)
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Sonar | $1 | $1 |
| Sonar Pro Pro Search mode ('pro') request fee: $14 / $18 / $22 per 1K requests (Low/Medium/High) | $3 | $15 |
| Sonar Reasoning Pro | $2 | $8 |
| Sonar Deep Research Also: citation tokens $2/1M, reasoning tokens $3/1M, search queries $5 per 1K | $2 | $8 |
Use cases
What you can produce with Perplexity AI
- Answers to research questions with inline citations to the live web pages behind each claim
- Multi-source Deep Research reports on Pro and above
- Multi-step tasks, documents, apps and scheduled automations run by the Perplexity Computer agent
- Page summaries, drafting and shopping help inside the free Comet browser
- Answers from premium data sources such as PitchBook and Statista on paid plans
- The same query answered by several AI models side by side with Model Council
Perplexity is still the quickest way to get a sourced answer: each reply links to the pages behind it, so verification takes seconds. Pro at $20 a month adds Deep Research, model choice and Computer credits; Max at $200 a month is for heavy agent use. The agent features are the least proven part, with published prompt-injection research against Comet and a court fight with Amazon over its shopping agent.
Use it for research and treat answers as leads to check, not final facts. Read the credit terms before buying more, because purchased credits are generally non-refundable.
What we found
Perplexity is an answer engine: every query runs a live web search, and the reply carries inline citations to the pages it drew on, so any claim can be checked in one click. Perplexity AI, Inc. launched it from San Francisco in 2022, with Aravind Srinivas as chief executive. It has since grown well beyond search. Comet, its Chromium-based browser with a built-in assistant, is free to download for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, and Perplexity Computer, announced in February 2026, is an agent that runs multi-step work such as research, document and app creation and, since September, scheduled automations.
That agent layer changed the pricing. Paid plans now include Computer credits, valued at 100 credits to the dollar, and the help centre says bought credits are non-refundable outside listed cases. Pro costs $20 a month or $200 a year and adds 4,000 bonus credits; Max costs $200 a month or $2,000 a year with 10,000 monthly credits. Enterprise Pro is $40 a seat a month and Enterprise Max $325, both cheaper billed annually. Read the credit terms before topping up.
The agentic features carry the most risk. In August 2025 Brave published an indirect prompt-injection flaw in Comet's page summariser, which it had reported to Perplexity, and Guardio Labs showed Comet buying an Apple Watch on a fake shop it built. Comet also brought Perplexity's most visible legal fight: Amazon sued over the shopping agent in November 2025, a federal court in the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in March 2026, and in August 2026 the Ninth Circuit vacated it, finding that the user, not Perplexity, accesses Amazon. In September no Ninth Circuit judge asked to rehear it.
Funding figures need care. The last widely reported valuation, $20 billion, dates from September 2025, not early 2026 as this page once said. For sourced research it remains a strong first stop; check load-bearing facts against the citations.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
Notable facts
- Perplexity was founded by four former OpenAI, DeepMind, and Berkeley researchers who were frustrated that AI answers were unverifiable — every Perplexity answer is cited.
- The company grew from 0 to 10 million monthly active users in less than 18 months, driven entirely by organic word-of-mouth from researchers and professionals.
- Perplexity's Pro tier lets users choose which AI model to use per query — switching between GPT-4, Claude 3, and Mistral Large for different task types.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Perplexity AI's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Perplexity AI unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
For the latest details, please refer to Perplexity AI directly →
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