Answer engine · by Perplexity AI
Perplexity: the best free product in AI.
An answer engine, not a chatbot: it searches the live web and cites every claim. The free tier — unlimited cited searches — is generous enough that many people never need to pay.
Plans
Perplexity pricing, August 2026.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited quick searches with citations, 5 Pro searches/day |
| Education Pro | $10/mo | Full Pro at half price for verified students and educators (SheerID check) |
| Pro | $20/mo ($200/yr) | 300+ Pro searches/day, GPT + Claude + Sonar model choice, unlimited file uploads, $5 API credit |
| Max | $200/mo | Unlimited advanced models, unlimited Labs, early access |
- Citations under every sentence — verifiable by design
- Best-in-class for current events, shopping research and fact-checking
- Free tier is genuinely unlimited for basic searches
- $5/month student plan is exceptional
- Not chatty — weak for brainstorming, drafting and roleplay
- Pro's deep-research feature has reportedly been throttled
- As a primary do-everything assistant it falls short
Our verdict: Start free and you may never upgrade. Pay for Pro only if you burn through 5 Pro searches daily or need the multi-model access.
Want Perplexity and the other majors together?
AI bundles can combine several model families in one interface. Compare them by included models, caps, privacy terms, file support, search quality and cancellation rules.
Compare AI bundlesFAQ
Perplexity questions.
Is Perplexity Pro worth $20?
Only if you exhaust the free tier's 5 daily Pro searches or want consolidated access to GPT and Claude models. The free tier covers most casual research completely.
What makes Perplexity different from ChatGPT?
It runs a real-time web search and cites every claim, so you can verify answers instead of trusting them. ChatGPT is a better writer and generalist; Perplexity is a better researcher.
Sources
Where these prices come from.
Every price on this page was checked against the provider's official pricing page on 2026-08-29. Prices are USD, before local tax, and change often — the official page always wins. See how we verify prices.