Software review
Perplexity Review
A cited-search engine wearing an assistant's clothes.
Research that needs current, cited web sources by default — news, fast-moving topics, fact-checking.
Our first stop for anything time-sensitive that needs a source attached to the answer, not a first choice for writing or code. It's a specialist tool we keep alongside a general assistant, not instead of one.
- From
- $20 / mo
- Free tier
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.0 / 5
Overview
Perplexity's core product is real-time, cited web search wrapped in a chat interface — it answers with sources attached by default, which the general assistants only do inconsistently. Free and Pro cover most individual research use; Max exists for people who want its Model Council (parallel multi-model comparison) and heavy Comet agent usage. It's narrower than ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini as a general assistant — coding and long-form writing are not its strength.
Best for
Research that needs current, cited web sources by default — news, fast-moving topics, fact-checking.
Not for
Coding, long-document drafting, or anything where you want one assistant to also be your general writing and reasoning tool.
How it performs
Each row is either our editorial view, drawn from using the product and reading around it, or a capability listed in the vendor’s own documentation — tagged so you know which. None of it is a controlled benchmark.
Citations attached by default make claims checkable in a way general assistants don't reliably do
EEditor’s viewPro's unlimited Pro search is genuinely useful on research-heavy days
EEditor’s viewComet agent (Max) can complete multi-step browsing tasks, not just answer questions
EEditor’s viewCitations attached to answers by default
DDocsComet agent for multi-step browsing tasks (Max)
DDocsModel Council compares multiple frontier models in parallel (Max)
DDocsFocus modes for academic, video and social-specific search
DDocsPricing record
Captured from the vendor’s pricing page. Prices change — this is dated.
| Plan | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited Pro searches per day, standard models |
| Pro | $20 | $200/year if billed annually (~$16.67/mo) — unlimited Pro search, file upload, image generation |
| Max | $200 | $2,000/year if billed annually — Model Council, Comet agent credits, Sora video generation |
Vendors change plans often — confirm before you buy.
Sources: pricing and feature information captured from www.perplexity.ai on 16 Sept 2026. Editor comments are our own judgement, not vendor statements.