Perplexity

Overview

Perplexity is an AI search company founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas (CEO), Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. The company's mission is to organize the world's information and make it accessible through AI. Rather than returning a list of blue links, Perplexity synthesizes information from across the web and delivers direct answers with inline citations, allowing users to verify every claim. Headquartered in San Francisco, Perplexity has raised over $500 million in total funding and reached a valuation of approximately $9 billion as of early 2025. Annual recurring revenue hit roughly $100 million by the end of 2024, making it one of the fastest growing AI startups in the world. Perplexity's product lineup includes Perplexity (the core AI search engine available on web, iOS, and Android), Perplexity Computer (a multi model agentic platform that executes entire workflows autonomously using 19 AI models, launched February 2026), Comet (an AI native web browser that integrates Perplexity search directly into the browsing experience), and the Sonar API (a developer platform for building search powered AI applications). The search engine supports conversational follow up questions, Deep Research for comprehensive multi source analysis, and image generation within the search experience.

What makes them different

Compared to Google, Perplexity provides direct, synthesized answers with inline citations instead of a page of links. There are no ads cluttering the results, no SEO spam pushing low quality content to the top, and no need to click through multiple websites to piece together an answer. Google is still better for navigational queries (finding a specific website) and local search, but for research and factual questions, Perplexity delivers a fundamentally better experience. Compared to ChatGPT, Perplexity is purpose built for search and research rather than general conversation. Every answer includes real time web sources with clickable citations, so you can verify the information. ChatGPT can browse the web, but it was designed as a general purpose chatbot first; search is an add on. Perplexity treats source attribution and factual accuracy as first class priorities. Compared to traditional search engines, Perplexity is AI native from the ground up. It supports conversational follow up questions that maintain context across a research session. There is no keyword guessing, no scrolling through pages of results, and no content farm spam. Deep Research mode goes further by reading dozens of sources and producing comprehensive, report style answers. Unique strengths include best in class source citation and attribution, an ad free search experience, the Comet browser that brings AI search directly into web browsing, conversational multi turn research sessions, and the Sonar API for developers who want to integrate AI search into their own products.

Their tools

Perplexity

search

perplexity

AI search engine that answers questions with real time citations from across the web.

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Comet

search

perplexity

Perplexity's AI native browser that puts search at the center of every browsing experience.

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Perplexity Computer

other

perplexity

Multi model AI platform that plans and executes entire workflows autonomously, from research to code deployment, running for hours in the cloud.

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