Olmo 3 (AI2) vs Perplexity Comet
Which one should you pick? Here's the full breakdown.
Olmo 3 (AI2)
Allen Institute for AI's fully-open frontier reasoning models -- Olmo 3 family (2025-11-20) includes 7B and 32B sizes, four variants (Base, Think, Instruct, RLZero). Apache 2.0 with fully open data + checkpoints + training logs. Olmo 3-Think 32B matches Qwen3-32B-Thinking at 6x fewer training tokens
Perplexity Comet
Perplexity's agentic AI browser -- FREE on all platforms as of 2026-03-18 (previously $200/mo Max-only). iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Browses the web, executes multi-step tasks, and summarizes pages in-line. Comet Plus ($5/mo) adds premium publisher content
| Category | Olmo 3 (AI2) | Perplexity Comet |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 6.0 | 8.0 |
| Output Quality | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Value | 9.5 | 9.5 |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Overall | 7.9 | 8.4 |
Pricing Comparison
| Feature | Olmo 3 (AI2) | Perplexity Comet |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Starting Price | $0 | $0 |
Which Should You Pick?
Pick Olmo 3 (AI2) if...
AI researchers doing reproducibility work, training-data studies, instruction-tuning research, or RLHF-free (RLZero) experimentation. Also valuable for academic institutions and non-profits that want to use an open-weight model whose provenance is fully auditable. Good as a teaching / learning model where inspecting checkpoints matters.
Visit Olmo 3 (AI2)Pick Perplexity Comet if...
- ✓Easier to use (8 vs 6)
Users who already use Perplexity for search and want an agent browser that can complete multi-step tasks (booking, research, shopping, document summarization) across tabs. Also a strong introduction to the AI-browser category for anyone curious but unwilling to pay $200/mo for a preview -- the 2026-03-18 free rollout makes evaluation risk-free.
Visit Perplexity CometOur Verdict
Perplexity Comet edges out Olmo 3 (AI2) with a 8.4 vs 7.9 overall score. Both are solid picks, but Perplexity Comet has the advantage in features.