Perplexity

Perplexity is a conversational search tool that answers questions with cited, up-to-date sources instead of a list of links. It sits somewhere between a chatbot and a search engine, and it has leaned hard into research and agentic work.

The headline feature is Advanced Deep Research. It runs agentically inside Perplexity's Computer assistant, asks clarifying questions before it starts, accepts follow-ups mid-run, and shows live source and progress tracking.

Beyond research, Perplexity gives you multi-model access to systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other vendors, plus the Comet browser for AI-assisted browsing.

Pricing is tiered. Free costs $0 a month. Pro costs $20 a month or $200 a year billed annually, and includes 4,000 bonus Computer credits; Perplexity's own pricing page shows the annual plan's per-month equivalent as $17. Max costs $200 a month or $2,000 a year billed annually, shown as an annual-equivalent $167 a month, and includes 10,000 monthly Computer credits plus 35,000 bonus credits. Enterprise Pro costs $40 per seat per month or $400 per seat per year (education/nonprofit pricing is lower), and Enterprise Max costs $325 per seat per month or $3,250 per seat per year. An Education Pro plan is available at $10 a month with SheerID student verification.

The limitations are worth knowing. Like any AI system it can still misread or over-trust weak sources, so citations need checking. The free tier is limited for frequent use, and agentic Computer work is metered by a monthly credit budget that heavy users can exhaust. Juggling multiple models also adds a learning curve for some users.

Perplexity is a strong pick if you do a lot of source-backed research, want agentic Deep Research, or like having access to several AI models in one subscription. Casual users who just need a few answers a day can stay on Free, while heavier users can choose either monthly or annual billing on Pro or Max.