Perplexity AI, Inc., or simply Perplexity, is an American privately held software company that provides a web search engine processing user queries and synthesizing responses. Its products leverage large language models and incorporate real-time web search capabilities, delivering answers based on current Internet content with cited sources. The company operates a freemium model, offering a free public version and a paid subscription tier called Perplexity Pro that grants access to advanced models and features. Founded in August 2022, Perplexity has grown rapidly and, as of late 2025, was valued at approximately US$20 billion, with ongoing expansions into browsers, shopping, and enterprise tools.
Perplexity is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has positioned itself as a competitor to traditional search engines, focusing on direct answers rather than lists of links. Its core service, also named Perplexity, uses natural language processing and retrieval-augmented generation to deliver summaries that include source citations. The company has faced legal challenges from media organizations over copyright and web-scraping practices, while also pioneering advertising and subscription models in the AI answer engine space.
History
Perplexity was founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, a former researcher at OpenAI and Google DeepMind; Denis Yarats, a machine learning engineer with experience at Facebook AI; Johnny Ho, a software engineer specializing in distributed systems; and Andy Konwinski, a co-creator of Apache Spark. The team launched its main search engine on December 7, 2022, and subsequently released a Google Chrome extension and mobile apps for iOS and Android. By February 2023, the platform had attracted two million unique visitors, reflecting early interest in its answer-centric search approach.
In April 2024, Perplexity had raised $165 million in funding, achieving a valuation above $1 billion. By June 2025, a $500 million funding round elevated the company to a $14 billion valuation. Investors included Jeff Bezos, Tobias, Nat Friedman, Nvidia, and Databricks, with additional capital from 1789 Capital, a firm linked to Donald Trump Jr. At Bloomberg’s Tech Summit 2025, CEO Srinivas stated the company processed 780 million queries in May 2025, with over 20% monthly growth and roughly 30 million queries per day.
Perplexity has pursued aggressive strategic moves. In July 2024, it launched a publisher program to share advertising revenue with content partners. On January 18, 2025, a day before the U.S. ban on TikTok was due, Perplexity submitted a merger proposal to acquire TikTok US. In August 2025, the company bid $34.5 billion to purchase Chrome from Google, arguing the sale could resolve antitrust litigation. By early 2026, Perplexity's valuation reached $21.21 billion following a Series E-6 round, and the company entered a three-year, $750 million commitment with Microsoft Azure for GPU capacity. In February 2026, Perplexity shifted to a subscription-first model, discontinuing its AI-integrated advertising strategy to prioritize user trust and objective responses.
Search Engine and Core Technologies
Perplexity's primary product is an online search engine that uses large language models to generate synthetic answers based on web content. The platform integrates real-time search through its Sonar API, initially powered by Meta's Llama model, and allows users to choose between backends such as GPT-5.4, Claude 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro. The company has developed proprietary models, including Sonar (based on Llama 3.3) and R1 1776 (a distilled version of DeepSeek R1).
The system employs retrieval-augmented generation, combining web search results with transformer-based language models to produce concise, cited answers. Perplexity's interface supports multiple modes, such as "Search" for standard queries, "Pro" for deeper research, and "Math" for problem-solving. The platform also offers a tool called Perplexity Pages, which generates structured reports and summaries from aggregated sources, catering to content creators and researchers.
Perplexity Pro and Enterprise
Perplexity Pro is a premium subscription tier featuring enhanced capabilities, including stronger security, data protection, and the ability to search across uploaded documents alongside web content. Pro users can choose between leading backend models, and the service provides a programmatic API for developers. Enterprise Pro offers additional administrative controls, team management, and extends document indexing up to 500 files in formats like Excel, Word, and PDF. The subscription model, introduced to maintain an objective answer engine, aligns with an enterprise focus, with per-user pricing and dedicated support.
Internal Knowledge Search
Internal Knowledge Search enables Pro and Enterprise Pro users to simultaneously browse web content and internal company documents. This feature facilitates information retrieval across an organization's private files, allowing users to upload and search through spreadsheets, text files, and presentations. Enterprise Pro users can index up to 500 files, and the tool is integrated into a single unified search interface, which is useful for knowledge management and internal research.
Search API and Developer Tools
Perplexity's Search API provides AI developers with programmatic access to its search infrastructure. In September 2025, the company released a software development kit, an open-source evaluation framework called search_evals, and comprehensive documentation for API design and optimization. The API supports high-rate querying and is used by startups and enterprises to build search-enhanced applications. Perplexity also offers a `completion` endpoint for integrating its engine with other large language models.
Shopping and Finance
In November 2024, Perplexity launched a Shopping Hub, an online platform that generates AI product recommendations and facilitates direct purchases. Backed by Amazon and Nvidia, the hub integrates review data and price comparisons. Earlier, in October 2024, Perplexity introduced finance-focused features, including real-time stock quotes, earnings data, peer comparisons, and financial analysis tools, sourcing data from Financial Modeling Prep. These extensions aim to position Perplexity as a multi-purpose AI assistant beyond search.
Assistant and Comet
In January 2025, Perplexity Assistant launched as an AI-powered tool that enhances the engine's functionality across apps. The assistant can perform tasks such as hailing a ride, identifying songs, and using a phone's camera answer queries about objects or on-screen content. It maintains context across actions, though Perplexity acknowledges limitations, such as requiring notification workarounds to summarise emails or calendar events. In July 2025, Perplexity launched Comet, a Chromium-based AI browser with integrated search. Initially available only to top-tier subscribers, Comet was released free in October 2025, offering features like article summaries, image description, and email drafting.
Legal and Copyright Issues
Perplexity has been criticized for web scraping practices. Analyses by wired and the [] cloudflare reported that Perplexity uses undetected web crawlers with spoofed user-agent strings to access content from sites that block or prohibit scraping. Legal action has come from the BBC, Dow Jones, and The New York Times, who allege copyright infringement and unauthorized use of content. In response, Perplexity has introduced a publisher program to share ad revenue with partners, but the company continues to defend its AI search model as a form of fair use and acknowledges ongoing disputes. To address some concerns, Perplexity has committed to blocking its crawlers on site servers, though its AI assistants still use web search.
Funding and Valuation
The company's funding history includes an April 2024 round of $165 million at a $1 billion valuation, a June 2025 fromNVIDI/, and a December 2025 Series E-6 raising of $500 million at $21.21 billion. As of early 2026, its valuation stood near $20 billion. Major investors include Nvidia, Databricks, and Amazon, with contributions from 1789 Capital, essential investorau. The company's revenue model transitioned from advertising to subscriptions, emphasizing user trust. Perplexity has also considered acquisitions, such as a merger proposal for TikTok US and an offer to purchase Chrome from Google for $34.5 billion.