Perplexity

Perplexity is the AI search company behind the Perplexity answer engine, the Comet AI browser, and the Sonar search API. Founded in 2022 and led by CEO Aravind Srinivas, the company built its reputation on a single idea: answer questions directly with cited, source-linked results instead of a list of blue links. As of June 2026 it is among the most prominent AI-native challengers to traditional web search, reported at roughly a $20 billion valuation after raising around $1.72 billion from investors including Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, SoftBank, IVP, Accel, and NEA.

What They Do

Perplexity builds an answer engine rather than a chatbot or a search index of its own. It retrieves current information from the open web, routes queries through frontier models from multiple providers, and returns concise answers with citations so users can verify sources. That citation-first design is the company’s core differentiator and the reason it is treated as a research tool more than a general assistant.

Around that core, Perplexity has expanded into adjacent surfaces: the Comet AI browser brings its answer experience into browsing, the Sonar API lets developers build cited search and answers into their own products, and Deep Research and an agentic Computer feature target longer, multi-step investigation. The strategy is to own the “get a trustworthy answer” moment across the browser, the app, and other companies’ products.

Current Flagship Products

• Perplexity: The cited AI answer engine, with model switching across frontier providers, Deep Research, and free plus Pro and Max tiers.
• Comet: Perplexity’s AI browser, which embeds the answer engine into web browsing and is included with paid plans.
• Sonar API: A search and answer API that lets developers build cited, web-grounded answers into their own applications.
• Deep Research and Computer: Longer-form research reports and an agentic system for multi-step tasks on higher tiers.

Strategic Position

Perplexity’s moat is product focus and brand: it defined the cited AI-answer category and is associated with trustworthy, source-linked research. Its challenge is that the capability is increasingly contested. Every major assistant, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude, now offers web search with citations, and Google and Microsoft control the default search surfaces. Perplexity competes by being the cleanest dedicated answer experience, by extending into the browser with Comet, and by selling its search stack to developers through Sonar.

For AIpedia readers, Perplexity is best treated as the citation-first research pick rather than a do-everything assistant. It shines when sources and recency matter, and it is worth comparing against the search features now built into general assistants and against developer search APIs when the use case is programmatic.