Perplexity
AI answer engine that cites sources for every claim.
Last updated · Filed under Search & Research
About this tool
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that replaces the traditional list of blue links with a sourced, conversational response. Each answer cites the web pages it draws from, lets the user follow up with related questions, and can be steered into focused modes like Academic, YouTube, Reddit or Writing. Under the hood Perplexity orchestrates models from OpenAI, Anthropic and its own Sonar family, choosing between them based on the task and the user's subscription. Pro users get unlimited Pro Search, deep research reports, file uploads, image generation and access to Spaces for grouping projects with custom instructions and shared sources. The company also ships the Comet AI browser, mobile apps with voice mode, and an API that exposes its retrieval stack to developers. Perplexity is popular with researchers, analysts, journalists and curious generalists who want answers with receipts.
- Web research
- Fact-checking
- Source discovery
- Quick answers
- Cited answers
- Focus modes
- Pro Search
- Spaces
- Multi-model access
Perplexity pros and cons
Hand-derived from the catalog data — strengths and trade-offs to weigh before signing up.
Pros of Perplexity
- Free tier available; paid plans from $20/mo
- Cited answers
- Focus modes
- Pro Search
Cons of Perplexity
- No autonomous agent — handles single prompts, not multi-step workflows
- Competition is strong in this space — see NotebookLM and You.com for comparison
3 plans from Perplexity
Pulled from Perplexity’s public pricing page. Prices may change — verify on the vendor’s site before purchasing.
Free
Discover and search the web
- Unlimited quick searches
- Limited Pro searches
- Limited file uploads
- Standard models
Pro
Power up your research
- 300+ Pro searches per day
- Choose GPT-4o, Claude, etc.
- File and image uploads
- Pro API credit ($5/mo)
Enterprise Pro
For teams and organizations
- Everything in Pro
- SOC 2, SAML SSO
- Data retention controls
- User management
Perplexity vs Search & Research
Side-by-side with the top 3 other search & research in this category.
| TOOL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRICING MODEL | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| STARTING PRICE | $20/mo | Free | $15/mo | $12/mo |
| CATEGORY | Search & Research | Search & Research | Search & Research | Search & Research |
| AI AGENT | No | No | No | No |
| EDITOR'S PICK | No | Yes | No | No |
| KEY FEATURES |
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| USE CASES |
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| TAGS | #search#research#citations | #notebook#research#rag | #search#agents#research | #academic#research#literature-review |
| WEBSITE | www.perplexity.ai | notebooklm.google.com | you.com | elicit.com |
Perplexity — frequently asked questions
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