Perplexity AI, Inc., or simply Perplexity, is an American privately held software company that offers a web search engine processing user queries and synthesizing responses using large language models. Its products include web search capabilities that provide answers based on current Internet content, citing sources used. A free public version is available, while a paid Pro subscription offers access to more advanced language models and additional features.
Founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, Perplexity has grown rapidly. In September 2024, the company completed a funding round of $250 million, which valued the company at $14 billion. This round marked a significant increase from earlier valuations and positioned Perplexity as a major player in the Generative AI space.
History
Perplexity AI was founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, engineers with backgrounds in back-end systems, Artificial intelligence, and Machine learning. The company launched its main search engine on December 7, 2022, and has since released a Google Chrome extension and apps for iOS and Android. In February 2023, Perplexity reported two million unique visitors. By April 2024, Perplexity had raised $165 million in funding, valuing the company at over $1 billion.
The September 2024 funding round of $250 million at a $14 billion valuation was a key milestone. Investors in Perplexity AI have included Jeff Bezos, Tobias Lütke, Nat Friedman, Nvidia, and Databricks. Additionally, Perplexity has received funding from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm notable for its association with Donald Trump Jr.
In July 2024, Perplexity announced the launch of a new publishers' program to share advertising revenue with partners. On January 18, 2025, the day before the impending U.S. ban on the social media app TikTok, Perplexity 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. In December 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo took an undisclosed stake in Perplexity AI and entered a global brand partnership with the company.
As of early 2026, Perplexity AI reached a valuation of $21.21 billion following its Series E-6 funding round. In January 2026, the company entered into a three-year, $750 million commitment with Microsoft Azure to secure GPU capacity. In February 2026, Perplexity transitioned to a subscription-first model by discontinuing its AI-integrated advertising strategy, with leadership stating this move was intended to preserve user trust in the "answer engine," prioritizing objective results over ad revenue.
Products and Services
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. Perplexity is available to web users without charge or registration, following a freemium model.
Perplexity Pro
Perplexity Pro is a subscription tier that includes stronger security and data protection and additional tools. It allows the user to select between backend models such as 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).
Internal Knowledge Search
Internal Knowledge Search enables Pro and Enterprise Pro users to browse web content and their internal documents simultaneously. It also allows users to 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.
Search API
Perplexity's Search API provides AI developers with programmatic access to the company's search infrastructure.
Shopping Hub
Perplexity's Shopping Hub is an online shopping platform that generates product recommendations and enables users to purchase products directly through Perplexity's interface. It was launched in November 2024 with backing by Amazon and Nvidia.
Finance
In October 2024, Perplexity AI launched new finance-focused features, such as software that tracks stock prices and company earnings data, and basic financial analysis tools. The platform sources its financial data from Financial Modelling Prep.
Assistant
In January 2025, Perplexity launched the Perplexity Assistant, an AI tool designed to improve its search engine's functionality. It can perform tasks such as using a rideshare app or searching for a song, and can maintain context across actions. The assistant can use a phone's camera to attempt to provide answers about the user's surroundings or on-screen content. Perplexity has said that the assistant is still in development and may not always function as expected. For instance, certain features, such as summarizing unread emails or upcoming calendar events, require users to enable a workaround based on notifications.
Comet
In July 2025, Perplexity launched Comet, an AI browser based on Chromium. Initially, access to the browser was limited to users subscribed to the most expensive subscription tier. The browser was later released for free download in October 2025. The browser integrates the Perplexity search engine.
Truth Social Chatbot
Perplexity has been contracted to produce a chatbot for Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social.
Perplexity Computer
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. In April 2026, Perplexity introduced Personal Computer, an extension of Computer designed to operate on a user's local device.
Leadership
Aravind Srinivas is the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI. He previously held research positions at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and other AI research institutions focusing on Machine learning and Artificial intelligence. In a March 2026 All-In episode, Srinivas said the incoming AI-related layoffs were a "glorious future" to "look forward" to, as it freed people from jobs they didn't like and gave them opportunities to pursue entrepreneurship.
Controversies
Copyright and Trademark Infringement Allegations
In June 2024, Forbes publicly criticized Perplexity for using their content. According to Forbes, Perplexity published a story largely copied from a proprietary Forbes article without mentioning or providing proper attribution. This incident was part of broader allegations of copyright infringement, unauthorized use of content, and trademark issues from several major media organizations, including the BBC, Dow Jones, and The New York Times.
According to separate analyses by Wired and, later, Cloudflare, Perplexity uses undisclosed web crawlers with spoofed user-agent strings to scrape the content of websites that prohibit or explicitly block web scraping. These practices have raised legal and ethical concerns in the media industry.
Funding and Valuation
The September 2024 funding round of $250 million at a $14 billion valuation was a significant event in the company's history. This round followed earlier funding that valued Perplexity at over $1 billion in April 2024. The company's valuation continued to rise, reaching $20 billion as of September 2025 and $21.21 billion in early 2026. The rapid increase in valuation reflects strong investor confidence in Perplexity's AI-powered search technology and its potential to compete with established search engines.