Perplexity AI – AI Search, Research & Chatbot

Perplexity is built around AI-powered search rather than a traditional chatbot-only experience. Users can ask questions in natural language, and Perplexity searches the web to construct an answer supported by citations and links to original sources. This makes it particularly useful when the user needs current information and wants to verify where the answer came from.

Pro Search provides a deeper search experience for questions that require more research, multiple sources or more sophisticated reasoning. Perplexity can search across different sources and synthesize the findings into a single response. Its search system can use different AI models, with model availability depending on the user’s subscription.

Research is Perplexity’s advanced research mode. It can conduct numerous searches, read and evaluate large numbers of sources, reason through the information and produce a comprehensive report. Research can also use coding and data-analysis capabilities and can work with uploaded documents. Reports can be exported or shared in supported formats.

Perplexity supports file uploads for documents, PDFs, images, audio and video. Users can ask questions about uploaded material and continue asking follow-up questions while maintaining the context of the files.

The platform also provides image generation and editing. Users can describe an image in natural language and Perplexity can generate an image as part of the response. Image generation is available on supported platforms and is primarily included with paid plans.

Perplexity has expanded its creation capabilities through Create files and apps, allowing users to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets and applications while incorporating research and visual material. This makes Perplexity useful for turning research into finished work rather than simply returning an answer.

Learn Mode provides an interactive learning experience designed to help students understand subjects through explanations, questions and quizzes. It makes Perplexity useful not only for finding answers but also for learning and studying.

Comet is Perplexity’s AI-powered Chromium-based browser. It combines normal web browsing with an AI assistant that can understand pages, summarize content, answer questions and perform supported browser tasks. Its Assistant can interact with websites and, when permission is granted, perform actions such as clicking, navigating and filling forms.

The Perplexity desktop application for Windows and Mac can also work with local files and folders, create and edit files, interact with supported applications and provide remote access to desktop work.

For advanced users, Perplexity Computer provides an autonomous agent capable of researching, coding, creating documents and working with connected tools. Model Council, available on higher-tier plans, can consult multiple AI models for complex research, decision-making and verification tasks.

Perplexity therefore combines several roles: AI search engine, research assistant, chatbot, content and document creator, data-analysis tool and AI agent platform.