Perplexity AI, Inc., commonly known as Perplexity, is an American privately held software company that offers a web search engine and answer engine. The company's core product processes user queries and synthesizes responses using large language models, drawing on current Internet content and citing the sources it uses. A free public version is available, while a paid Pro subscription provides access to more advanced language models and additional features. Founded in August 2022, the company has grown quickly, reaching a valuation of US$20 billion by September 2025 and launching a range of products including an AI browser and a shopping platform.
The company was founded by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, engineers with backgrounds in back-end systems and artificial intelligence. Perplexity has attracted significant investment from prominent figures and firms, including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Databricks, and has expanded its offerings beyond its initial search engine into areas such as finance tools, an AI assistant, and a desktop browser. The company has also faced legal scrutiny from major media organizations over copyright and trademark issues, as well as criticism over its web crawling practices.
History and Funding
Perplexity AI, Inc., was founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski)Skip; all four had prior experience in machine learning and engineering. The company 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, Perplexity reported two million unique visitors to its platform.
The company's financial growth was rapid. In April 2024, Perplexity had raised $165 million in funding, which valued the company at over $1 billion. By June 2025, a $500 million funding round elevated its valuation to $14 billion. In December 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo took an undisclosed stake and entered a global brand partnership. By early 2026, Perplexity reached a valuation of $21.21 billion following its Series E-6 funding round. In January 2026, the company committed $750 million over three years to Microsoft Azure for GPU capacity, and in February 2026, it transitioned to a subscription-first model, discontinuing its AI-integrated advertising strategy to focus on objective results.
Investors have included Jeff Bezos, Tobias Lütke, Nat Friedman, Nvidia, and Databricks, as well as 1789 Capital, a venture firm associated with Donald Trump Jr. In July 2024, Perplexity announced a publishers' program to share advertising revenue with content partners.
Search Engine Web Portal
Perplexity's primary offering is a search engine that uses large language models to generate responses to user queries by searching and summarizing web-based content. The platform is available to web users without charge or registration, operating on a freemium model. The search engine synthesizes information from multiple sources, presenting a coherent answer with citations, rather than a simple list of links. This approach differentiates it from traditional search engines by providing more direct, contextual answers.
Perplexity Pro and Models
Perplexity Pro is a subscription tier that provides stronger security, data protection, and additional tools. It allows users to select between backend models, including GPT-5.4, Claude 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro. The company has also developed its own models: Sonar, based on Llama 3.3, and R1 1776, based on DeepSeek R1. These proprietary models are integrated into the platform to offer alternative response generation options, catering to different user preferences or task requirements.
Internal Knowledge Search and Search API
Internal Knowledge Search enables Pro and Enterprise Pro users to browse web content and their internal documents simultaneously. Users can upload and search through files in Excel, Word, PDF, and other common file formats. Enterprise Pro users can upload and index up to 500 files, making it useful for corporate knowledge management. Alongside this, Perplexity's Search API provides AI developers with programmatic access to the company's search infrastructure, allowing third-party applications to leverage Perplexity's summarization capabilities.
Shopping, Finance, and Assistant
Perplexity's Shopping Hub, launched in November 2024, is an online shopping platform that generates product recommendations and enables users to purchase products directly through the interface. The launch had backing from Amazon and Nvidia. In October 2024, Perplexity introduced finance-focused features, including software that tracks stock prices, earnings data, and basic financial analysis tools, with data sourced from Financial Modelling Prep.
In January 2025, Perplexity launched the Perplexity Assistant, an AI tool designed to improve the search engine's functionality. It can perform tasks such as using a rideshare app or searching for a song, and it maintains context across actions. The assistant can use a phone's camera to answer questions about the user's surroundings or on-screen content. Perplexity has stated that the assistant is still in development, and some features, such as summarizing unread emails or upcoming calendar events, require users to enable a workaround based on notifications.
Comet Browser and Perplexity Computer
In July 2025, Perplexity launched Comet, an AI browser based on Chromium. Initially, access was limited to users of the most expensive subscription tier, but it was released for free download in October 2025. The browser integrates the Perplexity search engine directly into the browsing experience. In February 2026, Perplexity launched Perplexity Computer, a general-purpose AI agent designed to autonomously perform multi-step tasks using multiple large language models and specialized subagents. A version aimed at operating on a user's local device followed in April 2026.
Leadership and Corporate Actions
Aravind Srinivas serves as the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI. He previously held research positions at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and other AI research institutions. In a March 2026 All-In episode, Srinivas commented on AI-related layoffs, referring to them as a 'glorious future' that frees people from jobs they do not like and offers opportunities for entrepreneurship.
Perplexity has also pursued strategic corporate actions. On January 18, 2025, the day before the impending U.S. ban on the social media app TikTok, the company submitted a proposal for a merger with TikTok US. On August 12, 2025, Perplexity made a bid to purchase Chrome from Google for $34.5 billion, stating that the sale could remedy antitrust litigation against Google. The company has also been contracted to produce a chatbot for Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social.
Controversies and Legal Scrutiny
Perplexity has faced legal challenges over copyright infringement, unauthorized use of content, and trademark issues from major media organizations, including the BBC, Dow Jones, and The New York Times. In June 2024, Forbes publicly criticized Perplexity for using its content, alleging that Perplexity published a story largely copied from a proprietary Forbes article without proper attribution. Separate analyses by Wired and, later, Cloudflare found that Perplexity uses undisclosed web crawlers with spoofed user-agent strings to scrape content from websites that prohibit or explicitly block web scraping. These practices have raised concerns about content licensing and fair use in the age of generative AI.