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The Stack / Research
Perplexity
01 IntelligenceYes for the research seat — Perplexity's cited answers are the fastest route from question to verifiable fact, and that's load-bearing if you publish. Pro at $20 is the right tier; Max at $200 is for power researchers, not most operators.
The job in the stack
The research seat: current-events questions, competitive research, and any claim you need sourced before it ships.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Search with citations, basic models, limited weekly usage |
| Pro | $20/mo | $200/yr annual (shown as $17/mo); now includes Perplexity Computer with 4,000 bonus credits, model selection, Deep Research, 400+ app connectors |
| Max | $200/mo | $2,000/yr (shown as $167/mo); 10,000 Computer credits/mo plus 35,000 bonus credits, highest limits, several Model Council runs per month |
| Enterprise Pro | $40/user/mo | $34/seat/mo billed annually; 500 Computer credits/seat/mo plus 8,500 bonus. Enterprise Max: $271/seat/mo annual ($325 monthly per earlier checks), 15,000 Computer credits/seat/mo |
| Education Pro | $10/mo | Verified university students only; same Pro feature set at half price |
Pricing verified 2026-10-19. Plans change — the source of truth is Perplexity's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- Sonar Perplexity's own search-tuned model
- Comet Perplexity's agentic browser — free on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android since March 18, 2026; Comet Plus ($5/mo, premium publisher content) is included with Pro and Max
- Perplexity Computer Credit-metered agentic task runner. Pro now includes it with 4,000 bonus credits, and Max adds 10,000 credits/mo. Effort levels added Sept 21, 2026. Automations (Oct 5, 2026) run scheduled or event-driven work and replace Scheduled Tasks
- Personal Computer Hybrid local-cloud agent in the Mac app. It works across local files and Mac apps inside a sandbox. Opened to Pro and Enterprise on May 7, 2026, and Windows is announced but not shipped.
The honest read
What works
- + Every answer carries citations — verification is one click
- + Model choice on Pro: route questions to GPT, Claude, or Gemini
- + Fast: often question-to-sourced-answer in under ten seconds
What breaks
- − Citations still need reading — sources can be thin or misread
- − Max at $200 is priced past what most research workflows return
- − Long-form synthesis is weaker than a dedicated assistant seat
Use it for
- →Publishers and creators who must verify claims before shipping
- →Competitive and market research
- →Replacing the open-20-tabs Google research ritual
Skip it if
- ×Your assistant already has good web search and your volume is low
- ×You need deep offline reasoning more than sourced answers
Questions operators ask
?Is Perplexity Pro better than ChatGPT for research?
For sourced, current-events research — yes, citations by default beat asking a chatbot to remember. For synthesis and drafting from that research, hand off to your assistant seat.
?Do I need Perplexity Max?
Almost certainly not to start. Pro covers serious daily research and now includes Perplexity Computer with 4,000 bonus credits, which is enough to find out whether agent runs are part of your week. Max only earns its $200 once Computer at 10,000 monthly credits is daily infrastructure. Comet isn't part of that math either, since the browser has been free since March 2026.
What changed
- Freshness sweep: we read the rendered perplexity.ai/hub/pricing. List prices hold: Pro $200/yr ($17/mo shown), Max $2,000/yr ($167/mo shown), Education $10. Real change: Pro now includes Perplexity Computer with 4,000 bonus credits, where before it was a Max feature. Max shows 10,000 monthly plus 35,000 bonus credits. Enterprise is now shown at annual seat rates: Pro $34 (500 Computer credits/seat/mo plus 8,500 bonus) and Max $271 (15,000/seat/mo). We updated the plan notes, the Computer note and the Max FAQ. The page shows no monthly-billing price; the $20/$200 monthly rates are carried over from earlier checks.
- News: Perplexity changelog (Oct 5) adds Automations for ongoing work in Computer, inline visualizations, and GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5 in the model picker. The Sept 21 entry adds Computer effort levels and GPT-6 Astra. Plan prices not re-checked this run, so last_verified is unchanged.
- Freshness sweep: plan prices unchanged (Pro $20, Max $200, Education $10, Enterprise Pro $40, Enterprise Max $325). Added Personal Computer, the Mac agent that reached Pro and Enterprise on May 7, 2026.
- Freshness sweep — Free/Pro $20/Max $200/Enterprise Pro $40/Enterprise Max $325 all hold. Added Education Pro ($10/mo, verified students), a plan we hadn't listed. No model, feature, or Comet changes found.
- Freshness sweep — plan prices unchanged (Free / Pro $20 / Max $200 / Enterprise Pro $40). Real drift corrected: Comet is no longer a Max perk. Perplexity dropped the browser paywall on March 18, 2026 and Comet is free on all four platforms; what Pro and Max include now is Comet Plus. Max earns its price on unlimited Labs, Perplexity Computer at 10,000 credits/mo, and Model Council. Bundled model versions are deliberately not listed — sources disagree on the exact lineup and it rotates.
- Re-verified — plan prices unchanged. Model picker lineup shifted since July 3: GPT-5.2 → GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.5 → Claude Opus 4.8 as the bundled Claude option (Sonnet 5 landed on Perplexity's Agent API, not the main Pro bundle). Expect this list to keep rotating as labs ship.
- Verified plans: Free, Pro $20, Max $200, Enterprise Pro $40/user, Enterprise Max $325/user. Comet browser ships with Max.
Give Perplexity a job
The research seat: current-events questions, competitive research, and any claim you need sourced before it ships.
Try Perplexity →Alternatives with different jobs
ChatGPT
02 DecisionsThe generalist seat: quick answers, brainstorming, voice mode, and the widest plugin/app ecosystem when you need breadth over depth.
Google Gemini
02 DecisionsThe Google-side seat: massive context windows, Deep Research reports, and native reach into Gmail, Docs, and Drive.
Gemini Notebook (was NotebookLM)
01 IntelligenceThe source-grounded seat: synthesizing your documents, transcripts, and research into answers that cite themselves.