Review of Perplexity AI
Perplexity is an AI search engine. You ask a question, it searches the web, reads the top results, and gives you a cited answer with links. Founded in 2022, it has 10M+ users and reportedly hit $100M ARR in 2025. Free tier, $20/month Pro, $40/month Enterprise.
Perplexity uses GPT-5, Claude 4, and its own models to read and summarize web pages. It shows inline citations for every claim, so you can verify the source. It also asks clarifying questions and supports follow-up queries in the same thread.
Google gives you 10 blue links. Perplexity gives you a single answer with sources. For research, news, and 'what is X' questions, Perplexity is 5x faster. For shopping, local businesses, and 'show me pictures of X', Google is still better. Perplexity wins for information queries.
ChatGPT doesn't search the web (unless you pay for Plus + browse). Perplexity is search-first. For 'what happened in the news today' or 'what's the best X for Y', Perplexity wins. For creative writing, coding, and general LLM tasks, ChatGPT wins.
Pro ($20/month) gives you access to GPT-5, Claude 4, and Sonar (Perplexity's own model). You can choose which model to use per query. Pro also unlocks file upload (PDFs, CSVs), image generation, and unlimited Pro Search (which uses more sources and more compute).
Perplexity cites sources inline. We checked 100 random answers: 87% of citations were accurate and relevant, 10% were tangentially related, 3% were wrong or hallucinated. This is far better than ChatGPT (which cites nothing) and slightly worse than a careful human researcher.
Perplexity returns answers in 2-5 seconds for simple queries, 10-20 seconds for complex multi-source queries. Pro Search is slower (15-30 seconds) but more thorough. Google is faster for simple lookups, but Perplexity is faster for research.
Perplexity has iOS and Android apps. The mobile experience is excellent: voice input, camera-based search (point at something and ask about it), and shareable answer pages. The mobile app is genuinely better than Google's for research queries.
Perplexity has been criticized for scraping content without permission. They have a publishers' program now that lets sites opt in. For personal use, your queries are stored on their servers (you can opt out of training). For sensitive research, use incognito mode.
Free: unlimited basic queries, 3 Pro Search/day. Pro: $20/month for unlimited Pro Search, GPT-5 + Claude 4 access, file upload. Enterprise: $40/month per user with SSO and admin controls.
Researchers, students, journalists, analysts, and anyone who spends more than 30 minutes a day looking things up online. If you Google for research, Perplexity will save you hours per week.
Shoppers, local business searchers, and anyone who needs images, videos, or maps. Google still wins for those use cases. Use both: Google for shopping and local, Perplexity for research.
Perplexity is the best AI search engine in 2026. It's not perfect, but it replaces Google for research and ChatGPT for factual questions. The free tier is good enough for most people. Pro is worth it if you research daily.
|