What is Perplexity AI?
Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine powered by artificial intelligence, founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. Unlike traditional search engines that return lists of links, Perplexity provides direct answers with verifiable citations to original sources.
In September 2025, the company reached a valuation of $20 billion and processes over 780 million monthly queries with 20%+ month-over-month growth.
Main Features
Proprietary Models (Sonar Family)
- Sonar: Base model optimized for speed (1,200 tokens/second with Cerebras)
- Sonar Pro: Deeper searches with 2x more citations
- Sonar Reasoning: Chain-of-Thought reasoning capabilities
- Sonar Reasoning Pro: Based on DeepSeek-R1 for step-by-step inference
- Sonar Deep Research: For deep research sessions
Third-Party Models Available (Pro/Max)
- GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o
- Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Claude Opus 4.1
- Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini Pro 3
- Grok 4
- o4-mini
Key Functionalities
- Deep Research: Automatic 2-4 minute research that splits queries into sub-questions
- Comet Browser: Web browser with integrated AI (launched July 2025, free since October 2025)
- Comet Assistant: AI agent that automates browser tasks
- Perplexity Assistant: Android assistant with multimodal capabilities
- Spaces: Project spaces for collaborative research
- Pages: Generate web pages and presentations from searches
- Labs: Create dashboards, spreadsheets, and web applications
- Internal Knowledge Search: Search internal files (Pro/Enterprise)
- Shopping Hub: Shopping with AI recommendations (backed by Amazon and Nvidia)
Citations and Accuracy
- 93.9% accuracy on SimpleQA benchmark
- 21.1% on Humanity's Last Exam
- Leader in Search Arena with Sonar-Reasoning-Pro (1136 points)
- Average of 2-3x more cited sources than competitors
Plans and Pricing (December 2025)
Individual Plans
| Plan | Price | Main Features |
|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited basic searches, 5 Pro searches/day, limited uploads |
| Pro | $20/month ($200/year) | 300+ Pro searches/day, premium models, unlimited uploads, $5 API credit |
| Max | $200/month ($2,000/year) | Unlimited Labs, priority Comet access, advanced models (o3-Pro, Claude Opus 4) |
Enterprise Plans
| Plan | Price | Features |
|---|
| Enterprise Pro | $40/user/month | SSO, shared Spaces, admin controls, up to 500 files |
| Enterprise Max | $325/user/month | Maximum capacity, expanded storage/bandwidth |
API Pricing (Sonar)
| Model | Price |
|---|
| Sonar | $5/1,000 searches + tokens |
| Sonar Pro | $3/750K input tokens, $15/750K output tokens |
| Sonar Reasoning Pro | Variable by search mode (Low/Medium/High) |
Comet Browser
The Comet browser represents Perplexity's evolution toward an AI "operating system":
- Launch: July 2025 (Max subscribers), free since October 2025
- Platforms: Windows, macOS, Android
- Comet Assistant: Agent that can summarize emails, manage tabs, buy products
- Research Threads: Branched research sessions with persistent context
- Background Assistant: Coming soon - simultaneous asynchronous tasks
Chrome Bid
In August 2025, Perplexity made a $34.5 billion bid to buy Google Chrome.
Integrations and Partnerships
- Zoom: AI Companion 2.0 with real-time search
- Copy.ai: Prospect research for sales teams
- Doximity: Clinical research tool for physicians
- Truth Social: Chatbot contracted for the platform
Notable Investors
- Jeff Bezos
- Tobias Lütke (Shopify)
- Nat Friedman
- Nvidia
- Databricks
Technical Specifications
| Feature | Value |
|---|
| Max context | Up to 200K tokens (model dependent) |
| Sonar speed | 1,200 tokens/second (Cerebras) |
| Monthly queries | 780M+ (May 2025) |
| Growth | 20%+ month-over-month |
