Perplexity AI

A Tier · 8.5/10

**Perplexity disclosed on 2026-09-21 that Computer sessions are served by GLM 5.2** (Z.ai's open-weight model) and that it post-trains its own checkpoints on real user sessions -- the trained model becomes a model option in Computer, and the latest checkpoint cut live tool-call failures 21.2% relative. **Computer gained effort controls on 2026-09-17** (a Light/Standard/High/Ultra slider that picks the model and reasoning level, web first), and **HP began pre-loading the Perplexity Windows app on 2026-09-15** starting with the ZBook Ultra G3a. **Portable Computer -- the local, on-device version of Perplexity Computer -- reached Windows on 2026-09-14** for GeForce RTX / RTX PRO GPUs with 24GB+ VRAM, running a Qwen 3.8 27B post-trained for Computer, with locally completed work not consuming Computer credits (confirmed in Perplexity's own post: Pro and Max on individual and enterprise plans; the Qwen 3.8 27B model name is NVIDIA's statement). AI-powered search engine that gives cited answers instead of a list of links. **Hybrid Compute on Mac shipped 2026-09-01**: Perplexity Computer now splits a single task between cloud frontier models and a compact local model running on the Mac, with an on-device privacy gate that can mask, withhold, refuse or ask for consent before anything leaves the machine

Last updated: 2026-09-21Free tier available

Score Breakdown

9.0

Ease of Use

8.0

Output Quality

9.0

Value

8.0

Features

Visit Perplexity AI

Personality & Tone

The citation-first researcher

Tone: Clean, web-grounded, and clinical. Perplexity treats every answer like a research brief -- short intro, bullet findings, inline citations -- rather than a conversation.

Quirks: Hedges less than Claude because it is citing sources rather than stating opinions. Pro Search and Deep Research modes sound almost academic; casual chat feels stiff compared to ChatGPT.

The Good and the Bad

What we like

+Every answer includes numbered citations to real sources -- you can verify claims
+Pro search mode deeply researches your question across multiple sources before answering
+Faster than ChatGPT for factual research and current events
+Free tier is surprisingly generous for casual research

What could be better

−Not great for creative tasks -- it's a research tool, not a creative partner
−Citations sometimes link to low-quality or paywalled sources
−Writing quality is functional but bland compared to Claude
−Pro searches are limited even on the paid plan

Pricing

Free

✓Unlimited quick searches
✓5 Pro searches/day
✓Basic AI model

Pro

$20/month

✓600 Pro searches/day
✓Frontier model access
✓File uploads (PDF/DOC/DOCX/TXT/RTF)
✓API access + official Python/TypeScript SDKs
✓**Personal Computer included since 2026-05-07** via the Perplexity Mac app (was Max-only at April launch); Windows since 2026-07-28
✓**Kimi K3 (2.8T open-weight, 1M context, US-hosted) added 2026-08-04**
✓Projects (shared workspaces, replaced Spaces 2026-08-04) + Model Council (2-8 models per question)

Max

$200/month

✓Personal Computer (first access 2026-04-16)
✓Highest priority queue
✓All frontier models
✓Always-on agent orchestrates Mail, Notes, iMessage, Safari, local files
✓**Kimi K3 US-hosted added 2026-08-04**
✓Projects + Model Council

Known Issues

WHAT ACTUALLY RUNS PERPLEXITY COMPUTER: GLM 5.2, POST-TRAINED BY PERPLEXITY ON YOUR SESSIONS (2026-09-21, vendor-primary research post): Perplexity's 'Learning from Real-World Mistakes' is a training write-up, but it settles a question this page has carried since Computer launched -- **which model is underneath.** Verbatim: the pipeline 'draws from a training-eligible subset of real-world Computer sessions **served by GLM 5.2**', the trainer 'runs the same GLM 5.2 checkpoint twice' (teacher with a hint, student without), and '**the post-trained student then becomes a model option in Computer**'. So at least one of Computer's selectable models is a Perplexity fine-tune of Z.ai's open-weight GLM 5.2 -- the same lineage as the Qwen 3.8 27B it post-trained for Portable Computer. **The method, briefly:** rejection-sampling fine-tuning on successful sessions plus hint-guided On-Policy Self-Distillation on marked mistakes, where a 'hint' is a short correction grounded only in information the model already had (tool schema, earlier turns); user complaints and tool errors are traced back to the responsible turn by LLM judges. **The numbers, with Perplexity's own caveats attached:** offline tool-error rate 2.79% for stock GLM 5.2, 1.35% for an RFT-only checkpoint, 0.87% with RFT plus self-distillation ('not a controlled ablation'); a first live A/B against stock GLM 5.2 was not statistically significant; a second A/B between two trained checkpoints (about 100,000 users each) cut tool-call failures from **2.24% to 1.77%, a statistically significant 21.2% relative reduction**, with **no significant change in user dissatisfaction** (2.58% vs 2.54%). Perplexity states the training excludes sessions with PII and from users who opted out. **Why this belongs on the page:** buyers evaluating Computer against ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork should know its default agent brain is an open-weight Chinese-origin model tuned in-house, not a frontier API -- that is the source of both its credit economics and its ceiling. (Also relevant to glm.ts: GLM 5.2 now has a named production deployment at scale.)Source: Perplexity (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/learning-from-real-world-mistakes, hub index date 'Sep 21, 2026'; contributors listed incl. Denis Yarats) -- rendered via Firecrawl 2026-09-21 · 2026-09-21
COMPUTER GETS EFFORT CONTROLS -- A FOUR-STEP SLIDER THAT PICKS THE MODEL AND REASONING LEVEL FOR YOU (2026-09-17, vendor-primary): Perplexity Computer now has an **effort slider in the omnibar with Light, Standard, High and Ultra settings**; each setting 'selects the model responsible for coordinating an assignment and how deeply it reasons', and the orchestrator delegates sub-tasks to supporting agents that 'can use models from different providers'. Perplexity's examples: Light for collecting vendor invoices into a spreadsheet, Standard for a sales brief, High for prioritising product work, Ultra for evaluating a new market. **Cost rule as stated: 'Lower settings use less expensive models. Credit usage depends on the work Computer performs'** -- no credit multipliers are published, so the slider is a cost lever without a price list. Custom controls (pick a specific model and reasoning level) remain. **Web today; Android and iOS 'soon'.** The screenshot shows Ultra mapping to GPT-6 Astra at maximum effort. This is the same shape as GitHub Copilot's efficiency/balance/intelligence auto-selection tiers (9/14) and Claude Code's effort levels: vendors are converging on abstracting model choice behind a spend dial.Source: Perplexity (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/computer-adds-effort-mode-for-model-selection, hub index date 'Sep 17, 2026') -- rendered via Firecrawl 2026-09-17 · 2026-09-17
HP PRE-LOADS THE PERPLEXITY WINDOWS APP -- FIRST OEM DISTRIBUTION DEAL, STARTING WITH THE ZBOOK ULTRA G3A, WITH A READ-ONLY AUTODESK REVIT MCP INTEGRATION (2026-09-15, vendor-primary): HP will ship the Perplexity Windows app **pre-loaded in the taskbar**, beginning with the **HP ZBook Ultra G3a** (AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO 400-series) and 'more HP Windows devices... in the coming months'. Customers get Computer in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, Personal Computer for local files, 400+ connectors, and **Portable Computer on supported configurations** ('availability depends on the device configuration'). **New integration:** Perplexity, HP and Autodesk connect Portable Computer to **Autodesk Revit 2027 via its MCP server (Tech Preview)** -- a separate Revit add-on -- for natural-language questions about an open BIM model (door counts, fire ratings, locations) and exporting views, PDFs and schedules; **the Revit MCP server is read-only and does not modify the model.** Plan gating restated: Personal Computer for Windows is Pro, Max and Enterprise on Windows 10/11. **Why it matters:** an OEM pre-load is a distribution channel none of the other roster assistants has on Windows, and it lands the day after Portable Computer for Windows shipped.Source: Perplexity (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/perplexity-comes-to-more-windows-pcs-with-hp, hub index date 'Sep 15, 2026') -- rendered via Firecrawl 2026-09-17 · 2026-09-15
PERPLEXITY'S OWN POST CONFIRMS PORTABLE COMPUTER FOR WINDOWS -- 24GB VRAM FLOOR VERIFIED, PRO AND MAX ON INDIVIDUAL AND ENTERPRISE PLANS, LOCAL MCP SERVERS, SCHEDULED LOCAL TASKS (2026-09-14, vendor-primary; resolves the 9/14 entry's re-verify flag): Perplexity's hub post 'Portable Computer for Windows is here' states that Portable 'runs the model, agent harness, orchestrator, and scheduler entirely on the Windows device', that on-device work 'doesn't consume Computer credits', and that it **'is available to Pro and Max subscribers on both individual and enterprise plans'** through the existing Windows app. **Hardware, in Perplexity's words: 'On-device inference requires an NVIDIA GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPUs with at least 24GB of VRAM'** -- the NVIDIA-sourced floor is confirmed. **New detail not in NVIDIA's post:** Portable can **schedule recurring local tasks** (Perplexity's example: reconciling freight invoices in a permitted folder each morning), connects to desktop applications through **local MCP servers**, works with Gmail, Outlook, Slack and GitHub via the local orchestrator, and **asks permission before anything leaves the device** when escalating to Perplexity Search or one of '15+ frontier models'. Users 'download the local model you want to use in one click after selecting it in the model dropdown' -- **the post does not name the model, so the 'Qwen 3.8 27B post-trained for Computer' detail on this page remains NVIDIA's statement, not Perplexity's.** Lineage per the post: Portable launched in August for NVIDIA DGX Spark, Personal Computer for Windows shipped 7/28.Source: Perplexity (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/portable-computer-for-windows-is-here, hub index date 'Sep 14, 2026') -- rendered via Firecrawl 2026-09-17 · 2026-09-14
PORTABLE COMPUTER ON WINDOWS -- THE LOCAL AGENT LEAVES THE MAC, BUT ONLY FOR 24GB+ NVIDIA GPUS, AND LOCAL WORK IS CREDIT-FREE (2026-09-14, announced on NVIDIA's blog; no matching Perplexity post found at sweep time): NVIDIA published 'Perplexity Portable Computer Is Now Available on Windows, Powered by NVIDIA RTX', stating 'Today, Perplexity is adding **Portable Computer** in the Perplexity app for Windows on compatible NVIDIA GeForce RTX PCs and NVIDIA RTX PRO Workstations', building on 'existing support for NVIDIA DGX Spark systems and RTX PCs running Linux.' **What Portable Computer is:** 'a local version of the agent Perplexity Computer that plans and carries out multistep tasks' using local models, so **sensitive information stays on device, and locally completed work doesn't consume Perplexity Computer credits** -- the first time the credit-free local tier is stated explicitly. It can escalate to cloud models 'asking the user for permission before sending information off-device', which is the Windows counterpart of the Mac privacy gate recorded on 9/01. **The local model is a Qwen 3.8 27B 'post-trained to work with Perplexity Computer and optimized for NVIDIA RTX GPUs'** -- different from the Qwen3.6-35B-A3B that Perplexity's own Lily engine runs on Apple silicon, and NVIDIA does not say Lily is involved on Windows. Connectors: Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Google Drive, Gmail, Slack, GitHub. **HARDWARE GATE: 'GeForce RTX and RTX PRO GPUs with 24GB or more of VRAM'** -- i.e. RTX 4090/5090-class or workstation cards; DGX Station support 'expected to come soon.' **ATTRIBUTION NOTE:** this is NVIDIA's post about Perplexity's product, and it is a co-marketing piece for NVIDIA's local-AI push; the product facts (credit-free local work, the 24GB floor, the Qwen 3.8 27B model) are stated as Perplexity's, but Perplexity's own changelog and hub had no corresponding entry when checked the same day -- re-verify the VRAM floor and model against a Perplexity source next sweep. [RESOLVED 2026-09-17: Perplexity's own 9/14 hub post confirms the 24GB floor, credit-free local work and Pro/Max availability on individual and enterprise plans, but does not name the local model -- see the newer entry.] **THIS PARTLY CLOSES THE WATCH ITEM ON THIS PAGE:** the Windows version of Computer's local/hybrid mode has now shipped in some form, though only for a narrow hardware band and without the Windows-general availability the June announcement implied.Source: NVIDIA Blog (blogs.nvidia.com/blog/local-ai-perplexity-windows-pcs/, JSON-LD datePublished 2026-09-14T15:00:52+00:00) -- fetched 2026-09-14 via curl; perplexity.ai/changelog and perplexity.ai/hub checked same day, no matching post · 2026-09-14
HYBRID COMPUTE ON MAC -- CLOUD AND LOCAL MODELS SPLIT A SINGLE TASK, WITH AN ON-DEVICE PRIVACY GATE (2026-09-01, vendor-primary; this page was last reviewed 2026-08-20 and had only a vague June note about a 'hybrid local-server inference orchestrator', which this supersedes): Perplexity shipped the feature that makes Personal Computer defensible for confidential work. **WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES:** in the newest Perplexity for Mac app, users 'can now add a compact local model post-trained for Perplexity Computer and choose to run tasks on device'. Each task is **divided between the cloud and the local model** rather than routed wholly to one: 'The cloud handles frontier reasoning, web search, and planning, while the local model on the Mac processes private files, sensitive information, and on-device actions needed at every step.' Computer coordinates the whole workflow, so the user does not have to split prompts manually. **THE PRIVACY GATE IS THE PART WORTH READING CLOSELY, AND IT IS MORE THAN AN ON/OFF SWITCH:** 'A privacy gate on the Mac controls what may leave the machine. Before information from a protected file reaches the cloud, the privacy gate can **mask sensitive details, keep it local, refuse the action, or ask for consent**.' Four graded outcomes, enforced on device -- that is a materially stronger claim than 'we do not train on your data', because it is a mechanism rather than a promise. **REMOTE USE:** 'Perplexity Computer works with iPhone' -- prompts can be sent from anywhere while the local model keeps running on the Mac. **HARDWARE FRAMING:** Perplexity names Apple's new Mac mini and Mac Studio, 'announced last week', as ideal platforms, leaning on Apple silicon and unified memory. **THE HONEST LIMITS:** this is **Mac-only** -- the Windows version announced around 2026-06-04 still has not shipped -- and the local half is a **compact** model, not a frontier one, so the cloud is still doing the hard reasoning. The privacy guarantee covers what the gate is configured to protect, not everything you touchSource: Perplexity blog (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-hybrid-compute-on-mac, dated Sep 1, 2026) -- fetched 2026-09-07 · 2026-09-01
LILY: PERPLEXITY BUILT ITS OWN APPLE-SILICON INFERENCE ENGINE, AND PUBLISHED THE NUMBERS (2026-09-01, vendor engineering post): the local half of Hybrid Compute does not run on Apple's standard stack. Perplexity wrote **Lily, a lightweight local inference engine built specifically for Apple silicon and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B**, with separate optimizations for prefill and decode. **ARCHITECTURE:** a **Rust runtime** loads the checkpoint and manages session state and the generation loop, an **OpenAI-compatible chat-completions API** accepts requests and streams tokens, and **custom Metal kernels** execute Qwen-specific operations -- **'Neither PyTorch nor MLX is in the execution path'**. The rationale is specialization: MLX-LM's reusable kernels must support many architectures, whereas Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is a sparse hybrid (MoE routing plus fixed-size recurrent states and full attention) whose irregular workloads reward an engine that coordinates kernels, data movement and scheduling around one fixed structure. **VENDOR-PUBLISHED PERFORMANCE, ON A MAC STUDIO WITH A 40-CORE GPU AND 128 GB OF UNIFIED MEMORY:** across ten prompt lengths for prefill and ten context lengths for decode, from 256 to 128K tokens, Lily averages **1.23x MLX-LM's prefill throughput and 1.35x its decode throughput**; at a 4K-token prompt and 4K-token decode context it reaches **5,749.9 prefill tokens/sec and 186.6 decode tokens/sec**. **TREAT THESE AS FIRST-PARTY:** they are Perplexity's own measurements against MLX-LM on one machine configuration, with no third-party replication -- and a 1.23-1.35x gain over a general-purpose framework is a solid engineering result, not a step change. **A standalone demo is publicly available on GitHub**, which is unusual enough to be worth noting: the engine underpinning a paid product is inspectableSource: Perplexity engineering blog (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/optimizing-on-device-inference-for-apple-silicon, dated Sep 1, 2026) -- fetched 2026-09-07 · 2026-09-01
COMPUTER IN EMAIL -- THE AGENT NOW RUNS FROM YOUR INBOX, AND IT IS LIVE FOR EVERY COMPUTER USER TODAY (2026-08-18, vendor-primary): Perplexity added email as a launch surface for Computer. You '**send, forward, or cc computer@perplexity.com**' -- a new message, a forwarded thread, or a cc on an existing conversation -- and '**Computer verifies the sender, reads the full thread and any attachments, and runs the task with the sender's own connectors and permissions**'. The reply comes back **in the same thread**, with deliverables like **Excel models, PDFs and decks returned as attachments**. **AVAILABILITY IS THE STRONG PART:** '**Computer in Email is available to all Computer users today**' -- no waitlist, no tier gate beyond already having Computer (Pro $20/mo and Max $200/mo per the pricing above). **THE SECURITY MODEL, WHICH IS THE FIRST THING TO ASK ABOUT AN EMAIL-TRIGGERED AGENT:** Perplexity says Computer **verifies the sender before answering**, so 'a task only runs with that person's own access', and for security it '**replies only to the sender**' -- **'Reply all' support for Enterprise is 'coming soon'**, i.e. not shipped. Every email task is a full Computer session viewable on web and mobile '**with the same steps and audit trail**' as a web-app task. **CONTEXT CARRIES OVER:** an email task draws on the same **Brain** self-improving memory as web and Slack sessions, so team terminology, output-format preferences and prior decisions apply. **WHERE IT SITS:** email joins **Computer in Slack** and **Computer in Teams** as the third collaboration surface. Perplexity's rationale is that 'nearly a third of knowledge work still happens over email' and its worked examples are pointedly finance and legal -- forwarding a CIM and data-room thread to get a first-pass LBO model back as Excel, cc'ing Computer on a redline exchange for a summary of open issues, emailing for a five-year DCF. **THE CAUTION WORTH STATING:** a forwarded thread hands the agent everything in that thread including attachments, and the trigger is an email address -- so sender verification is the entire boundary between 'my agent' and 'anyone who can spoof me'. Perplexity does not describe the verification mechanism in the postSource: Perplexity (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/computer-now-works-in-email, dated Aug 18, 2026, fetched 2026-08-20 via curl -- perplexity.ai 403s WebFetch) · 2026-08-18
FIVE-PART RELEASE: PROJECTS, MODEL COUNCIL, US-HOSTED KIMI K3, VOICE MEMORY AND AN OPEN-SOURCE AGENT SECURITY TOOL (2026-08-04, vendor changelog): Perplexity's largest single release since Computer launched, and none of it was picked up by aggregator coverage. **(1) PROJECTS REPLACE SPACES.** Projects are shared Computer workspaces with a **persistent file system where humans and agents edit the same files**, a self-improving memory via **Brain** that carries context between tasks, and **connectors scoped per project** rather than per account. **Every existing Space is migrated automatically** -- if you had Spaces, they are now Projects, so this is a change you get whether or not you wanted it. Collaboration detail that matters for privacy: invited teammates share files, artifacts and history, but '**personal memory and connector accounts stay scoped to each individual**'. You can link a Slack or Teams channel to a project with `/project` and start tasks in-channel with full project context. **(2) MODEL COUNCIL IN COMPUTER** -- assemble '**a board of top models for a single question**': pick **two to eight models across OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and open source**, choose an analysis depth, and Computer runs each independently then synthesises **where they agree, where they disagree, and what each uniquely surfaces**, before turning the result into reports or decks. This is the most interesting product idea in the release: it sells model disagreement as the deliverable, which is the opposite of every router that tries to hide it. **(3) KIMI K3, US-HOSTED** -- the 2.8T open-weight frontier model is now in Perplexity and Perplexity Computer for **Pro and Max**, '**hosted exclusively on US-based servers**', with 1M context and native vision, explicitly pitched as getting the model '**without data leaving US infrastructure**'. That is a jurisdictional answer to the main enterprise objection to Chinese models, made possible by the weights being public (see /tools/kimi). **(4) VOICE MODE MEMORY** -- voice on web and Computer now opens with your personalisation context (profession, interests) already loaded, so you stop re-explaining yourself each session. **(5) NUMBAT** -- a genuinely unexpected one: Perplexity released an **open-source agent-detection and response layer** giving security teams live visibility into what AI coding agents do on endpoints, **with the ability to block risky actions before they run**. It ships as a **single Go binary for macOS, Linux and Windows**, integrates with the leading agent harnesses, emits **hook-based and OpenTelemetry telemetry**, enforces **CEL rules** to stop network egress, sensitive file access or shell commands on-device, and can **reconstruct a forensic timeline from on-disk artifacts even with no live telemetry running**. A search company shipping open-source EDR for coding agents is a real signal about where the agent-security gap isSource: Perplexity changelog (perplexity.ai/changelog/shared-workspaces-personal-computer-for-windows-and-model-council, dated 08/04/26, fetched 2026-08-06 via curl -- perplexity.ai 403s WebFetch) · 2026-08-04
PERSONAL COMPUTER FOR WINDOWS (2026-07-28, vendor-primary): Perplexity's agent platform came to Windows -- 'Today we're launching Personal Computer for Windows, bringing Perplexity's agent platform to more than a billion devices globally.' It works on local files (create and edit Word/Excel, find files and file them in Explorer), moves between local files and the web, connects to Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams) plus 400+ App Connectors, supports voice mode, and hands tasks off from phone to desktop. **AVAILABILITY CORRECTION -- this is NOT Max-gated, contrary to some coverage.** The vendor page states plainly: '**Personal Computer is available now for Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers on Windows 10 and 11**' (verified by direct fetch 2026-08-03). Safety posture: it 'always alerts a user before it takes a sensitive action like sending an email or deleting a file', files are created in a secure sandbox, and actions are auditable. Perplexity's own scale claim: Computer has performed 'more than $9.4B in labor-equivalent work' since launching earlier this year. This closes the Mac-only gap the April 2026 launch left openSource: Perplexity blog (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/personal-computer-on-windows, fetched 2026-08-03 via curl -- perplexity.ai 403s WebFetch) · 2026-07-28
BRAIN MEMORY + CLAUDE OPUS 5 UNDERNEATH (2026-07-13 and 2026-07-27, vendor changelog): **Brain**, Perplexity's self-improving memory system, launched in Computer on 7/13 -- it builds a private context graph across sessions, connectors, files and past decisions, refreshes nightly, links every memory back to its source, and can be switched off. Vendor-reported effect: it 'lifted answer correctness 25% and recall 16% while cutting cost 13% on tasks with prior context.' On **7/27 Brain went global for Max subscribers** in 15 languages. Same day, **Claude Opus 5 went live across Perplexity Search and Computer** -- vendor wording: 'On the WANDR benchmark, it outperformed every model tested except Fable 5, while costing 57% less per task.' Also in this window: mid-task orchestrator model switching, one-click website publishing to pplx.app or your own domain via Vercel, and Agent API Skills. Treat the Brain and WANDR figures as first-partySource: Perplexity changelog (perplexity.ai/changelog, entries 2026-07-13 and 2026-07-27) · 2026-07-27
PERSONAL COMPUTER EXPANSION (2026-05-07, vendor-confirmed): 'Personal Computer is Available to All Mac Users' -- the always-on agent rolled out to **Pro ($20/mo) and Max subscribers via the new Perplexity Mac app**, ending the Max-only gate from the April 16 launch. Runs locally and autonomously (optimized for Mac/Mac mini), 400+ connectors, credit usage tied to subscription tier. Since then: a hybrid local-server inference orchestrator (~2026-06-05, automatic on-device vs cloud task routing, shown at Computex 2026) and an announced **Windows version** (~2026-06-04, orchestrates local apps, files, and 20+ AI models -- not yet shipped)Source: Perplexity blog (perplexity.ai/hub/blog/personal-computer-is-available-to-all-mac-users), VentureBeat (Computex hybrid inference), heise (Windows version) · 2026-06
Pro Search reached GA in April 2026 with multi-step reasoning across sources. Official Python and TypeScript SDKs also released. File attachment support (PDF/DOC/DOCX/TXT/RTF) rolled out in the same windowSource: TechBriefly, Perplexity blog · 2026-04
Occasionally cites sources that don't actually support the claim being madeSource: Reddit r/perplexity_ai · 2026-03

Best for

Researchers, students, professionals, and anyone who needs factual answers with sources. It's what Google should have become.

Not for

Creative writing, brainstorming, or tasks where you need a conversational AI partner. Use Claude or ChatGPT for that.

Our Verdict

Perplexity is the best AI tool for research, period. The citation system means you can actually trust and verify answers instead of blindly hoping the AI didn't hallucinate. It's not trying to be ChatGPT -- it's trying to replace Google for research queries, and it's succeeding. If you do any kind of research work, the Pro plan is worth it.

Sources

Perplexity: Learning from Real-World Mistakes (2026-09-21) -- Computer sessions served by GLM 5.2; post-trained checkpoint becomes a Computer model option; 21.2% relative tool-failure cut (accessed 2026-09-21)
Perplexity: Computer adds effort controls for model selection -- Light/Standard/High/Ultra (2026-09-17) (accessed 2026-09-17)
Perplexity: Perplexity comes to more Windows PCs with HP -- ZBook Ultra G3a pre-load, Revit MCP tech preview (2026-09-15) (accessed 2026-09-17)
Perplexity: Portable Computer for Windows is here -- 24GB VRAM floor, Pro/Max individual + enterprise, local MCP, scheduled tasks (2026-09-14) (accessed 2026-09-17)
NVIDIA Blog: Perplexity Portable Computer Is Now Available on Windows, Powered by NVIDIA RTX -- 24GB+ VRAM, Qwen 3.8 27B local model, credit-free local work (2026-09-14) (accessed 2026-09-14)
Perplexity: Introducing Hybrid Compute on Mac (2026-09-01) (accessed 2026-09-07)
Perplexity Engineering: Optimizing On-Device Inference for Apple Silicon -- the Lily engine (2026-09-01) (accessed 2026-09-07)
Perplexity: Computer now works in email -- available to all Computer users (2026-08-18) (accessed 2026-08-20)
Perplexity changelog: Shared workspaces, Personal Computer for Windows, and Model Council (2026-08-04 -- Projects, Model Council, US-hosted Kimi K3, voice memory, Numbat) (accessed 2026-08-06)
Perplexity blog: Personal Computer is Available to All Mac Users (2026-05-07) (accessed 2026-06-09)
Perplexity official site (accessed 2026-04-18)
Engadget: Perplexity Personal Computer for Mac (accessed 2026-04-18)
MacRumors: Perplexity Personal Computer for Mac (accessed 2026-04-18)
Reddit r/perplexity_ai (accessed 2026-04-18)
Hands-on testing (accessed 2026-04-18)

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Alternatives to Perplexity AI

ChatGPT

**ChatGPT for Word arrived 2026-09-17 on every plan including Free** (Word joins Excel and PowerPoint in the same Microsoft add-in, drawing on the shared Codex usage allowance), plugins can now hold multiple accounts, and on 2026-09-21 Finances gained **Experian credit-score tracking** (Plus/Pro, US) plus a Privacy Center for Free/Go/Plus/Pro. **Astra for Law launched 2026-09-17** -- GPT-6 Astra configured for legal work with a 230M-URL legal search index and 26 partner-built legal plugins, offered first to selected law firms through Trusted Access in ChatGPT and Codex as 'GPT-6 Astra Law' (API id gpt-6-astra-law 'coming soon', no price published). **ChatGPT Images 2.5 shipped 2026-09-08** to every tier (Sketch, templates, up to 50% lower latency; API twins GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst at the same $8/$30 per 1M as gpt-image-2), and on 2026-09-16 OpenAI began testing **Sponsored Agents** inside ChatGPT Ads with HubSpot and Shopify integrations, published a **misalignment-reporting framework** with six incident reports, and shipped usage and outcome analytics for ChatGPT Work and Codex admins. The chatbot that started the AI revolution. **GPT-6 Astra launched 2026-09-03** -- OpenAI's new flagship at $10/$50 per 1M (long-context $20/$75, Fast mode 2x, no Fast mode under EU data residency), rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise within existing allowances, and the **first model OpenAI has ever designated Critical for cyber capability**. Enterprise access is off by default at launch. On 2026-08-06 the free tier changed materially: GPT-5.6 Luna becomes the default for Free and Go users with UNLIMITED text chats and a new Think button, while Plus/Pro get a retuned GPT-5.6 Sol in Chat plus an effort slider. GPT-5.6 went GA 2026-07-09 (Sol $5/$30 per 1M) and OpenAI CUT Luna 80% to $0.20/$1.20 and Terra 20% to $2/$12 on 2026-07-30. On 2026-08-13 OpenAI previewed **Ultrafast**, a Cerebras-powered API tier running GPT-5.6 Sol up to 14x faster (750 output tok/s) -- waitlisted, capacity-limited, and with no pricing published. Also now: Health in ChatGPT (7/23, US) and the ChatGPT Work agent (7/9)

8.8/10

Free tierFrom $0

The most polished AI chat experience ava...All-in-one: text, image gen, code execut...

Updated 2026-09-21

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft's answer to ChatGPT -- free GPT-4 access with Bing search built in, but it feels like a corporate product

7.5/10

Free tierFrom $0

Free tier gives you GPT-4 with web searc...Deep integration with Windows, Edge, and...

Updated 2026-07-04

Poe

One subscription, every major AI model -- Quora's multi-model chatbot lets you switch between GPT-4, Claude, and more

7.5/10

Free tierFrom $0

Access to GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Llama, ...Custom bot builder lets you create speci...

Updated 2026-08-03

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)

Google's free research assistant that turns your documents into an AI you can query -- and a podcast you can listen to. **Renamed from NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on 2026-07-16**, still a standalone product, now with in-notebook code execution and syncing across the Gemini app and Search. **Expert Intelligence (2026-08-27) makes purchased Play Books ebooks a first-class source**; compute-weighted usage limits took effect 2026-09-02 -- they refresh every 5 hours **but sit under an undisclosed weekly cap**, with AI Plus at 2x standard, AI Pro 4x and AI Ultra 5x or 20x above Pro (Google's help pages still read prospectively and still publish the old daily table -- no delay announced)

7.8/10

Free tierFrom $0

Completely free with no catch -- no cred...Audio Overview feature is genuinely uniq...

Updated 2026-09-07

Alexa+

Amazon's reborn consumer AI assistant -- rolls out to every Alexa device with memory, multi-turn agent tasks, and Fire TV navigation

8.3/10

Free tierFrom $0

Actually useful on-device now -- multi-t...Free for Prime members -- if you already...

Updated 2026-07-05

Character.AI

AI-character roleplay chat platform -- once 200M+ monthly visitors, now in a prolonged user exodus after the 2026-02-18 'Moderatedpocalypse' mass-delete and escalating TRAIGA-compliance restrictions. The alternatives market (Janitor AI, Chai, DreamGen) is now the real story

6.5/10

Free tierFrom $0

Still the largest Character-chat platfor...Mobile apps on iOS and Android are polis...

Updated 2026-07-05

Siri AI (Apple)

Apple's ground-up Siri rebuild, unveiled at WWDC 2026 (June 8) -- conversational, on-screen aware, searches your personal data across apps, gets its own app with synced history. Built on Apple Foundation Models developed in collaboration with Google's Gemini. Developer betas now; public beta in July; ships this fall with iOS 27. Not in the EU (iPhone/iPad) or China at launch.

7.5/10

Free tierFrom $0

Deep system integration no third-party a...Free with the OS -- no $20/mo subscripti...

Updated 2026-07-18