Perplexity AI is an “answer engine” that combines LLMs with real-time web search, delivering concise responses with clickable sources. It supports multi-turn follow-up questions and deeper research modes, making it ideal for quick fact-checking, learning, and research.
This solves a common problem many people face—in today’s information overload, traditional web search often feels exhausting, while LLMs frequently make things up without citing sources.
As the world’s first “conversational answer engine,” Perplexity AI combines the reasoning power of AI with real-time search. It not only helps you find answers quickly but also provides clear citations, making information retrieval more efficient and reliable.
If you’re new to Perplexity AI, don’t worry. This article will walk you through what it is, what it can do, and how to make the most of it, so you can truly master this practical tool.
About Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search and answer engine launched in 2022. It stands out with its real-time search capability and the advantage of adding information sources. Unlike traditional search engines that simply list web links, Perplexity AI combines the reasoning power of large language models with web search to filter and organize massive amounts of information, then present it to users in a clear and concise way.
What makes it unique is the way it integrates web search with artificial intelligence—not only answering your questions but also providing multiple references and sources, which greatly improves the accuracy of the information. Another key difference from traditional search is that you can have a back-and-forth conversation with Perplexity AI to dive deeper into any topic. Whether you’re doing academic research or market analysis, Perplexity AI serves as a reliable and practical assistant.
How does Perplexity AI work?
The way Perplexity AI works can be simply understood as a combination of “AI reasoning + real-time search.” It is powered by advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, combined with real-time search capabilities, and continuously improves its answers through machine learning algorithms.
Large Language Model Processing
When you ask a question in Perplexity, it doesn’t mechanically match keywords. Instead, it calls on large language models (such as GPT, Claude, or Sonar) to understand your intent and generate a concise answer. It then reads, analyzes, and synthesizes the retrieved information—working like a research assistant that helps you “digest” the content.
Real-Time Information Retrieval
Traditional AI tools (such as the free version of ChatGPT) rely on data snapshots from their training period, which often makes them unable to answer questions about the latest events. Perplexity, however, does not depend on static training datasets. When you enter a question, it performs real-time searches across the web, including the latest news articles, academic papers, and more. This means it can provide up-to-date answers for current events or newly published research.
For example, when I asked about Disney+’s latest subscriber numbers in 2025, I directly saw references to Disney’s official financial report. When searching for tech news, I could quickly access the day’s developments rather than outdated secondhand information. For users who need timely content, this is a clear advantage.
Source Integration
Unlike traditional AI chat tools, Perplexity includes reference links in its answers, usually pointing to academic papers, news sources, or other trusted websites.
From my own experience, this feature is especially useful for writing reports or conducting research—because the answers come with built-in citations, which not only improve reliability but also allow me to directly reference them in my work, reducing the need to search for sources repeatedly.
👉 Simply put, Perplexity’s workflow is: user asks a question → real-time search → AI summarizes → provides answer + sources → Pro users can further conduct deep research and export results.
What Can Perplexity AI Do?
Perplexity AI offers a wide range of features, from simple Q&A to complex research. Here are some of its key capabilities:
Get reliable answers quickly: When you enter a question, Perplexity AI immediately provides a response along with reference sources. In the Humanity’s Last Exam benchmark, Perplexity Deep Research achieved an accuracy of 21.1%, significantly higher than models like Gemini Thinking, o3-mini, o1, and DeepSeek-R1.
- Find academic resources: When writing a paper or conducting technical analysis, Perplexity AI can perform multi-round searches and consolidate information scattered across databases, news sites, and academic sources, saving a significant amount of research time.
To compare the results, I tried using both a traditional search engine and Perplexity AI on the same topic. With a traditional search, I had to open each webpage one by one and extract the useful information myself, while Perplexity AI generated a research report within seconds.
It’s worth noting that when searching for academic resources, the free version may get stuck due to limited search queries. In such cases, the Pro version’s Deep Research feature can automatically run dozens of search rounds and generate a complete research report, saving a great deal of time.
- Answer complex questions: No matter how complex or difficult the topic is, Perplexity AI can consolidate information from different fields, compare perspectives, and structure the logic to help you better understand. For example, when I asked about “Claude vs ChatGPT differences,” Perplexity AI quickly generated an intuitive comparison table that made it easier for me to grasp the distinctions between the two.
- Solve everyday problems: Beyond work and study, Perplexity AI can also provide instant and practical information for daily life. For example, when I asked “Best things to do in Tokyo in autumn,” it generated a list of attractions in checklist format, complete with images and reference sources.
In summary, whether you’re dealing with simple questions or complex research, it can provide you with a reliable report—without the worry of fabricated content.
Who Is Perplexity AI For?
Perplexity AI is suitable for most users, but compared to other AI tools, its value is especially significant for professionals.
Students and Academic Researchers
Perplexity offers features designed specifically for learning—such as Perplexity Spaces, which helps students organize course materials, notes, and online resources. It can generate study guides or practice questions, and also supports collaborative sharing.
In addition, its Deep Research mode achieved 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark, delivering efficiency comparable to several hours of work by a human researcher.
Professionals and Industry Analysts
Perplexity AI can be used for market analysis and industry trend research, saving professionals a significant amount of time. According to reports, in 2025 Perplexity processed over 100 million queries per week and reached 15 million monthly active users, demonstrating its broad adoption in professional fields.
General Users and Knowledge Enthusiasts
Perplexity not only provides conversational Q&A but also enhances credibility by retrieving information in real time and citing sources, making it a reliable tool for everyday knowledge queries. Here are some real user reviews:
“I've found Perplexity to be incredibly convenient for obtaining direct answers in one go, rather than having to visit multiple links and fishing for information.”
Pros and Cons of Perplexity AI
Of course, every product has its strengths and limitations. Based on my own experience, here are the pros and cons of using Perplexity AI.
Main Advantages
✔ High accuracy: Unlike many other AI products, Perplexity stands out by providing information sources to support its conclusions. This makes its answers more accurate and reliable.
✔ Easy to use: The interface is clean and intuitive—just type in a question and you get a clear answer, with virtually no learning curve.
✔ High-quality responses: Perplexity is not only fast but also delivers high-quality answers. By combining diverse information sources with real-time data, its concise summaries are both productive and easy to understand.
Limitations
❌ AI bias: Like all AI models trained on biased data, Perplexity can reflect and reproduce biases, sometimes producing stereotypical or inaccurate answers.
❌ Copyright concerns: Perplexity has faced multiple copyright infringement lawsuits in recent years, with claims that it illegally copied and republished copyrighted articles. For users, the risk of potential infringement remains a concern.
Perplexity AI vs. ChatGPT
Perplexity AI and ChatGPT are both advanced tools built on powerful language models, and each has had a significant impact in the field of artificial intelligence. Like many others, I often wonder—which one should I use? What are the key differences between them? Each tool has its own strengths and is better suited for different purposes, so the best choice depends on what you want to accomplish.
Perplexity AI Used for search, information lookup, and research Answers come with direct source citations Supports real-time search (including in the free version) Interface is clean and search-engine-like Context is maintained within the question thread | ChatGPT Used for chatting, writing, and brainstorming Answers do not include sources by default; browsing must be enabled in Pro Only Pro with browsing supports real-time search Interface is chat-oriented, with longer and more conversational responses Context is maintained within the conversation, making it better for extended discussions |
In short, choose Perplexity AI when you need official, verifiable sources; use ChatGPT when you want to generate content or explore ideas.
How to Use Perplexity AI as a Beginner?
If this is your first time using Perplexity AI, don’t worry—it’s actually very simple. Below, I’ll walk you through the steps.
Sign-up and Getting Started
Create an account: Visit Perplexity AI in your desktop browser or download the Perplexity AI app. You can sign up with Google, Apple, or email. Then complete the email verification or third-party authorization as prompted, and your registration is done.
Choose your plan:
Free version: Great for everyday search and Q&A, but with limited features.
Pro version ($20/month): Unlocks advanced features such as unlimited Pro searches, 500 Deep Research queries per day, multi-model switching, and more.
Ask your question: Type your question into the search bar, and Perplexity will instantly search the web and generate a concise answer. You can continue asking follow-up questions, and it will maintain context—just like chatting with a research assistant.
💡 Tips for Better Results
Although Perplexity AI is easy to use, mastering a few tips can help you get the most out of it:
Be specific with your questions: The clearer your query, the more precise the answer. Always include details such as time, place, and subject.
❌ Vague: “Tell me about AI.”
✔ Specific: “Compare the strengths of GPT-5 and Claude 3.5 in programming tasks.”
You can also dig deeper by asking follow-up questions—one advantage of Perplexity AI is that it retains your previous queries.
Review sources carefully: Perplexity AI provides citations for nearly every response, so try to prioritize official, trustworthy sources. For example: major news outlets (e.g., BBC, Reuters) and scientific journals (via Semantic Scholar, PubMed). When multiple sources support the same answer, its reliability increases significantly.
Getting Started with Perplexity AI: Free or Pro?
For many new users, the big question is: is the Free version enough, or should you pay for Pro? Recently, I took a closer look at the differences between Perplexity AI Free and Pro—you can check out my other article for a detailed breakdown. Here, I’ll give you a clear, side-by-side comparison in table form so you can quickly see the differences.
| Feature | Free Perplexity AI | Pro Perplexity AI ($20/month) |
| Search limits | Limited | Unlimited Pro searches |
| Deep Research | ❌ Not available | ✔ Up to 500 times per day |
| Model selection | Single model | Multi-model switching (e.g., GPT-4/Claude) |
| Content export | ❌ Not available | ✔ Export to PDF / share pages |
| Response speed | Standard | Faster and more stable |
| Best for | Everyday queries, light use | Academic research, market analysis, professional users |
It’s clear that Perplexity AI’s Free plan is fine for everyday lookups, but if you—like me—need deeper research support, upgrading to Perplexity Pro will take your experience and productivity up a notch.
What can Perplexity Pro bring me?
If you upgrade to Perplexity Pro, you’ll notice a major leap in search depth, overall experience, and efficiency—and you’ll unlock more powerful features.
Unlimited professional searches
Pro users are no longer constrained by daily search limits. With a subscription, you can run hundreds of searches using Perplexity’s advanced models for professional search and reasoning.
Easier collaboration and sharing
Create dedicated AI assistants and knowledge bases with Perplexity Spaces. It supports multi-user collaboration, project and asset management, and makes team knowledge sharing smoother.
File and multimodal support
Perplexity Pro lets you upload files (PDF, Word, and more, up to 25MB) for content extraction, summaries, and Q&A.
Multiple model modes
Professional Search Model: Ideal for comprehensive, detailed answers that aggregate multiple sources with references.
Reasoning Search Model: Great at multi-step reasoning to break down complex problems.
Best Mode: Automatically picks the most suitable model—fast and effortless.
Research Mode: Designed for big topics, generating clear, structured research reports.
Labs: Perplexity Labs provides cutting-edge tools to build reports, spreadsheets, apps, and more.
Perplexity Pro is undeniably powerful—but for most users, $20 a month isn’t exactly cheap.
Two years ago, I stumbled upon an incredibly cost-effective subscription platform—GamsGo. It’s a subscription-sharing service that lets you access Perplexity Pro for just a fraction of the official price—about one-fifth of the cost. As someone who’s been using it for two years, I can honestly recommend it to every friend who asks. ❤
Conclusion
Perplexity AI isn’t just another AI search engine—it’s a whole new way of acquiring knowledge and verifying information. Compared to traditional search, it delivers answers more directly and with clearer, more transparent sources.
This guide is designed to help beginners get started, while also giving AI enthusiasts a deeper understanding of the product. If you’d like to explore its premium features without paying the full price, GamsGo offers a convenient subscription-sharing solution, allowing you to unlock everything at a much lower cost.
One thing is certain: Perplexity AI is absolutely worth it—and in many ways, it’s quietly reshaping how we interact with information.
FAQ
How is Perplexity different from ChatGPT?
Perplexity vs. ChatGPT: ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot, while Perplexity is designed to find information from the web. That said, if you push Perplexity a bit, it can also perform many chatbot-like functions.
What does Perplexity actually do?
Perplexity uses advanced AI to interpret your questions, ensuring it fully understands what you’re asking. It then searches the internet, pulling from articles, websites, and scholarly sources, and compiles the most relevant insights into clear, easy-to-understand answers.
Is Perplexity better than Google?
Think of Google as a vast encyclopedia of the internet, while Perplexity is like a smart assistant that helps you interpret and navigate that encyclopedia. Each has its strengths, so it’s not really about which one is “better,” but rather about how you want to search.
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