“Now, after positive feedback, we’re making it a fixture, rolling it out to more users for desktop. Perplexity provides conversational answers with citations, so you can validate information without digging through pages of results.”
Also, it will add:
Visual search: “Powered by Google Lens, it lets you search what you see with a simple right-click on any image.”
I hope Librewolf rips out the code for this latter 
Perplexity has money i guess. I never used it. If i search for a website, i use google. If i am doing a “research” or have a question in my mind, that is when i use AI. But why use perplexity when we have Chagpt or Grok. Is perplexity better than those? Or is it totally free maybe? Free stuff tends to be underwhelming nowadays (excluding Linux 
)
You could try asking Perplexity and see what it says. 
Nevermind, I perplexitied it for you:
Perplexity AI is a search engine-driven AI platform that offers various subscription plans, including a free tier. Its main appeal lies in providing researchers and users with access to up-to-date information and advanced AI models, potentially making it different from general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok.perplexity+2
Why Use Perplexity Instead of ChatGPT or Grok?
- Perplexity specializes in delivering accurate, real-time information pulled directly from the web, making it highly valuable for research and fact-finding tasks.zapier+1
- Its tiered pricing structure allows users to access advanced models and features such as GPT-4 or Claude-3, along with API credits for integration purposes.perplexity+1
- The free plan offers unlimited quick searches with limitations on more advanced searches, which can be sufficient for casual or initial research.team-gpt+1
Is It Better or Free?
- Perplexity offers a free plan, which includes basic search capabilities. More advanced features like use of premium models and unlimited searches are available in paid plans starting at $20/month.perplexity+1
- Whether it is “better” depends on your needs:
- For fact-based research, real-time data access, and integration with various models, Perplexity may be more suitable.
- For general conversation or writing assistance, tools like ChatGPT or Grok might suffice and are often more user-friendly without subscription costs.godofprompt+1
- The choice depends heavily on the specific use case, with Perplexity’s paid tiers providing added value at a cost.
Summary
- Perplexity is not entirely free; it has a free tier but charges for premium features.
- It is particularly strong for real-time data retrieval and research, potentially surpassing general-purpose chatbots in accuracy for specific tasks.
- The decision to use Perplexity over ChatGPT or Grok depends on the user’s priorities: real-time information, advanced models, or general conversation.
Would you like details on specific pricing plans or feature comparisons?
- https://www.perplexity.ai/enterprise/pricing
- https://www.reddit.com/r/perplexity_ai/comments/1l4va7f/whats_the_1_reason_to_use_perplexity_over_chatgpt/
- https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11187416-which-perplexity-subscription-plan-is-right-for-you
- https://zapier.com/blog/perplexity-vs-chatgpt/
- https://docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing
- https://www.godofprompt.ai/blog/chatgpt-vs-perplexity-vs-grok-for-research-which-ones-better
- https://team-gpt.com/blog/perplexity-pricing
- https://www.datastudios.org/post/chatgpt-vs-claude-vs-perplexity-full-report-and-comparison-on-features-capabilities-pricing-an
- https://www.perplexity.ai/pro
- https://www.arsturn.com/blog/using-perplexity-to-compare-grok-gpt-and-claude-like-a-pro
Perplexity AI leverages a range of advanced third-party large language models (LLMs) from multiple leading providers, depending on your plan (free, pro, or enterprise), the specific query, and settings. The key third-party services and models currently used include:
- OpenAI (via Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service): GPT series models including GPT-4 and GPT-5, as well as DALL-E for images.
- Anthropic (Claude models): Claude 3, Claude 4.5 Sonnet, delivered on Google Vertex AI and AWS Bedrock.
- Meta (Sonar models): Based on open-source LLaMA 3.1 models (8B, 70B, 405B), fine-tuned in-house.
- Google (Gemini and Veo models): Latest advanced generative AI models including Gemini 2.5 Pro.
- x-AI (Grok models): Integrated for some use cases, typically on X (Twitter) related tasks.
- Flux (FLUX.1 model)
Perplexity uses these models as the “code base,” i.e., pre-trained models, without using their underlying training data. They select and route queries to the most suitable model based on intent and task, often combining LLM output with real-time web search results for richer responses.
This multi-model strategy enables Perplexity to cover a wide range of tasks from expert reasoning and writing, to coding, summarization, and social media insights, while respecting user data privacy agreements with the third-party providers.
So basically, it is a “middle man”. It is not an AI on its own. And it is not totally free, it has a paid tier. However, if by paying perplexity, we can get access to all these models, maybe it could be a very lucrative deal.
What makes perplexity interesting from my perspective is that it is the only tool that I know of that includes current web data and doesn’t require any type of login.
I recently dropped zen as my daily driver as it’s progression in development seems to pursue a different direction.
Thus I’ve just migrated back to using Firefox and was a bit annoyed about the fact that when you enable one of the LLM interference providers in the sidebar, the mark text function within the content of a webpage would automatically add features to query the LLM selected in the AI chatbot, even if the sidebar is hidden.
Sure, easy to remove. But I don’t really appreciate it.
Should switch to LibreWolf I guess.
I don’t use ChatGPT. However, I have tried it a few times. Twice I had to give more up to date information to it. Once about a digital camera, another time, I believe, it was something Linux related.
It apologized for not having access to the latest information in those occasions.
This has never happened with Perplexity. And providing the reference for verifying the answers is a plus.
On a different note: DuckDuckGo provides access to various models via their Duck.AI service, anonymously & free of charge.
They also introduced a subscription model that would add further advanced models, (non - mini version or more recent)
How quotas in terms of tokens are handled and if the conversations would be used for further training purposes ? No clue !
In my experience, ChatGPT (the free tier) tends to use the dataset that it already has, even when it has the ability to access the internet. So when i use it, i always specifically “push it” to go online and find the most up to date information. And it actually does. But of course that is an unnecessary hassle for me to include that in the prompt.
Grok on the other hand, when i ask something, goes directly to the internet. I can actually see it, it tells you what it is doing while processing. However, that doesn’t mean what Grok gives me is the most recent, i also ask it to verify, but in my experience, Grok is better in terms of recency.
I always prefer the models with full internet access. I remember the times that the answers were a couple years old with dataset cutoffs (it wasnt too long ago). AI was only useful like an “encyclopedia” back then, hopefuly young people will know what i am talking about
I see that there are a lot of models out there now. Maybe we need something like perplexity to at least moderate or approximate the outcome that we can receive from multiple models to save time. It is funny that now we need another AI to regulate the so many different AI responses. AI for AI.
“Would you like to play a game?” --JOSHUA, WarGames
I am a big fan of perplexity. I have advertised perplexity here in the forum a couple of times. I have also a paid chatgpt account but perplexity is my winner when it comes to search engines.
For me, perplexity is a really good search engine. Better than chatgpt. I like the answers it gives. Particularly when asking questions about Linux, shell scripting, docker, python, and such. The answers are very useful. E.g. perplexity is able to answer many of the question asked here in this forum.
I like the way how perplexity is presenting the answers. It shows the web sources it used to create the answer and I can easily follow up and do a deep dive directly in the sources. If I dont like a source, like reddit, I can simply tell perplexity not to use reddit as a source.
With chatgpt it is not straight forward to get to the source of the information. chatgpt is good when it comes to creativity, when I ask chatgpt to create something, like a storyline for the next dungeon. But for web searches perplexity is my number one.
Removed it as soon as it invaded my browser. That along with Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, and Google don’t live in the browsers I use.
I cannot call myself a fan, let alone a big fan of perplexity.ai. However I do use it occasionally for more complex and time consuming search tasks.
Though the results that I have got so far have always satisfied my “quest”, one limiting factor/consideration for me is the following: (ironically)
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-compares-the-energy-consum-rpdUIb43TRqXRMGseb2WXA
Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand the difference in the mode of the functioning described here but, speaking for myself, this is always at the back of my mind when I am considering to perform an AI search.
What I don’t like about Perplexity AI is the fact that it’s free tier already requires an user account.
EDIT:
I’ve been mistaken, on that part. As pointed out by @cactux, a user account isn’t a strict requirement to use their services. But I’m still skeptical about their data collection.
/EDIT
Sure, in comparison to Duck AI which I’ve mentioned earlier, their models are more up to date. But I prefer I to not have an user account that would include all the conversations or web searches I’ve initiated.
Most of the time, I’m totally fine with the web search via duckduckgo. And in case someone don’t want any AI features enabled, their settings allow granular control if their Search Assist would be used or if you want Duck A.I. enabled or not. All you need is to use their cloud save settings to be set up and you won’t be bothered by Search Assist or Duck AI.
Furthermore, besides Perplexity AI there are also other services that are offering search options that could be combined with AI features. Similar like Duck AI, Brave Search has a “Answer with AI” feature (enabled by default) and you could use that without using Brave as a browser.
Then, there is Kagi, which also requires a user profile to use the freemium tier. But it focuses ad-free search results. 100 searches as well as 100 AI requests are covered by that. Can’t tell how good it is.
Another competitor to Perplexity is exa.ai/search which is a search engine designed specifically for artificial intelligence applications. But it isn’t really tailored towards the consumer markets, more towards businesses.
Last but not least, for the privacy focused users who wouldn’t trust brave or google, nor duckduckgo, There’s also Mullvad Leta, which queries either brave or google via proxy. Mullvad offers it in case no VPN or privacy related DNS services are being available that would enable privacy. Or as a last option to resist browser fingerprinting.
It actually doesn’t. I use it with no user account.
At least you can opt out to not enable the AI chatbot feature in firefox.
Anyway - librewolf doesn’t ship with that feature. And arkenfox user.js could be used on any browser based on firefox. Won’t really make sense in the case of librewolf as it already provides a privacy-respecting user.js and should resist fingerprinting.
Can’t tell - when I visit their site the UI greets me with sign up and log in options and I’m too lazy to block those reminders or clicking them away each time. Or to put their cookies on my whitelist and such.
Perhaps if you want to post accurate and credible info, you would need to go that “extra mile” .
You seemed to be quite certain about it in your previous statement.
Another “testimony”:
