Perplexity

At a glance

Official website

https://www.perplexity.ai

Category

AI Search Assistants

Free plan

$0; practically unlimited basic searches with citations in every answer; basic AI models; Comet browser included.

Free plan limits

3 Pro Searches/day and 1 Research query/month on Free. File uploads limited. No manual model choice on Free. Searches may be used for training unless the user opts out.

Paid plans from

From $20/month billed monthly ($17/month billed annually) — Pro plan.

Best for

Researchers, students, and journalists who want sourced, checkable answers every day.

Perplexity review: what the free plan really gives you

Perplexity is a search engine that answers in sentences instead of links. Ask a question and it reads live web sources, writes a direct answer, and puts a citation after every claim so you can check where each fact came from. That citation habit is the whole point: a chatbot can invent a confident-sounding answer, but Perplexity shows its sources, which makes it far more useful for research, fact-checking, and any question where being wrong has a cost. The free plan also includes the Comet browser, Perplexity's own web browser, though the search itself is the reason most people come.

The free plan is generous where it matters most and tight where it matters least for casual use. Basic searches are practically unlimited, with citations in every answer and access to basic AI models, so everyday questions — what happened, how something works, what a product costs — cost you nothing. The caps land on the deeper tools: three Pro Searches a day and one Research query a month on the free plan, according to the Help Centre plan table. Pro Search digs deeper and reasons more carefully; Research runs a longer multi-step investigation. One Research query a month means you should save it for a question that genuinely deserves it, and three Pro Searches a day means you should use them on the hardest questions, not on every query. File uploads are limited, and there is no manual model choice on the free plan.

Commercial use is allowed under Perplexity's terms, with no free-plan commercial ban stated, so research you do on the free plan can feed into work. One privacy note is worth knowing: on consumer plans, searches may be used for training unless you opt out, so check the setting if that matters to you. There is no watermark, which is expected for a search tool, and no credit card is needed for the free plan.

Against Microsoft Copilot, the other tool in this hub, Perplexity wins on citations and on the clarity of its free limits — you know exactly how many Pro Searches and Research queries you get — and it wins as a dedicated research tool. Copilot wins on ecosystem, since it is already inside Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365. Perplexity suits a researcher, student, journalist, or curious reader who wants sourced answers to real questions every day, and who can live with three deep searches a day. The Pro plan starts at $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually, with far higher Pro Search and Research allowances.

Pros and cons

Alternatives to Perplexity

If Perplexity does not fit, these tools in the same category are also listed on AI Free List:

• Microsoft Copilot
• ChatGPT
• Google Gemini

Frequently asked questions