# What is Perplexity? Facts, license and pricing (Oct 2026)

Canonical: https://theagenticweekly.com/what-is/perplexity · Last verified: 2026-10-25 · Published: 2026-10-25 · Author: Agentic Weekly (operated independently from Texas, US) · Evidence: Evidence: Reported. Everything here was read from Perplexity's own pages on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago). We have not run Perplexity for this page, so it says nothing about quality or speed.

> Perplexity is aI search with citations in every answer; Pro is $20 a month ($17 billed annually) and Max is $200 ($167 billed annually). License: Proprietary. Facts were read from official pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported, not Tested.

## What Perplexity is

Perplexity's pricing hub lists Free ($0, citations on every answer, limited weekly usage), Pro at $17 a month billed annually ($20 monthly) and Max at $167 a month billed annually ($200 monthly per its help center). Pro adds Perplexity Computer access and premium sources; Max adds higher limits on Deep Research and more video creation.

We list Perplexity under AI search and research.

## Perplexity key facts

Table: Perplexity facts (vendor pages and GitHub, 2026-10-25)

|  | Perplexity |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Perplexity AI |
| License | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web, apps and Comet browser (per Perplexity) |
| Pricing model | Freemium |
| Free tier | Free: $0, limited weekly usage with citations |
| Evidence | Reported from vendor pages |

## Who Perplexity is for

- Good for: People who want cited web answers.
- Good for: Researchers using deep research.
- Skip if: You want an offline or local tool.

## How to start with Perplexity

1. Open perplexity.ai and try the Free plan.

## Perplexity alternatives

- You.com: You.com now presents itself as search and inference infrastructure for AI: web search, answer and research APIs plus an inference router.
- ChatGPT: OpenAI's assistant for chat, writing, images, voice and agent-style work.
- Elicit: AI research assistant that searches academic papers, extracts data and drafts reports; free Basic tier with paid per-user plans.

## What we did not verify

- Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry).
- Answer quality (not tested).
- Output quality, speed and reliability of Perplexity: we have not run it for this page.

## FAQ

### What is Perplexity?

Perplexity's pricing hub lists Free ($0, citations on every answer, limited weekly usage), Pro at $17 a month billed annually ($20 monthly) and Max at $167 a month billed annually ($200 monthly per its help center). Pro adds Perplexity Computer access and premium sources; Max adds higher limits on Deep Research and more video creation.

### What license is Perplexity under?

Proprietary. Read from the project's own pages on Oct 25, 2026.

### Is Perplexity free?

Free: $0, limited weekly usage with citations. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page.

## Sources

- [Perplexity pricing](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/pricing) (fetched 2026-10-25)
- [Perplexity Max help center](https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11680686-perplexity-max) (fetched 2026-10-25)

## Related

- [Perplexity facts and sources](https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/perplexity)
- [Alternatives to Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/alternatives/perplexity)
- [AI search and research: all tools we track](https://theagenticweekly.com/best/ai-search)
- [Perplexity pricing](https://theagenticweekly.com/what-is/perplexity-pricing)
- [ChatGPT vs Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/chatgpt-vs-perplexity)
- [Claude vs Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/claude-vs-perplexity)
- [Grok vs Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/grok-vs-perplexity)
- [Mistral Le Chat vs Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/le-chat-vs-perplexity)
- [Perplexity vs Elicit](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/perplexity-vs-elicit)
- [Perplexity vs You.com](https://theagenticweekly.com/compare/perplexity-vs-you-com)

## Changelog

- 2026-10-25: First published from official pages read on 2026-10-25.

## How to cite

Agentic Weekly, "What is Perplexity? Facts, license and pricing (Oct 2026)", last updated 2026-10-25, https://theagenticweekly.com/what-is/perplexity