Perplexity
by Perplexity AI · chatbot · search
May be outdated — Jul 6, 2026
Perplexity is an “answer engine” — a chatbot fused with live web search that returns concise answers with inline citations. That makes it a favorite for research, fact-checking, and any question where freshness and sourcing matter more than open-ended creativity.
Pro users can pick the underlying frontier model, and developers can build on the Sonar API. Notably, unlike OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Perplexity has a referral/affiliate program — one of the few big-ish names where a comparison hub can actually earn a commission.
Pros & Cons
- +Answers cite their sources
- +Great for current, factual research
- +Has a referral/affiliate program (unlike the big labs)
- –Less suited to open-ended creative work
- –Depends on the quality of web sources
Latest models & API cost
SonarSearch-grounded answers with citations at a very low price — built for live-web Q&A.$1 in / $1 out · per 1M tokens
Sonar ProDeeper multi-step research answers with larger context and more citations.$3 in / $15 out · per 1M tokens
What it can do
✓Live web search✓Image understanding$Image generation (paid plans)✓Voice conversations✓File upload & analysis—Code execution / data analysis✓Deep research / agentic mode◐Custom bots / assistants (limited)◐Persistent memory (limited)✓Mobile apps✓Desktop app✓Developer API—Open-weight models✓Opt out of data training
Highlights
- ›Live web search with cited sources
- ›Focused research and follow-up questions
- ›Choice of underlying frontier models (Pro)
- ›Sonar API for developers