Perplexity Freemium

What it is

Perplexity is an AI answer engine: you ask a question and it searches the web, then writes an answer with numbered citations. It also runs deep research reports, generates images and short videos, and offers a Comet browser and a developer API. For creators it works best as the research and fact-checking step before writing.

Key features

• Cited answers and multi-step research reports
• Model picker on paid plans for GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Sonar and others
• Image generation with a selectable image model in settings
• Video generation for Pro and Max subscribers (up to 8-second clips)
• Spaces and file uploads to research inside your own documents
• Web, iOS and Android apps plus the Sonar API

Models inside

Perplexity's help centre (September 2026) lists Sonar 2, GPT-5.6 Terra, Gemini 3.7 Flash, Claude Sonnet 5, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3 Ultra on Pro; Max adds GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 5. Video uses Veo 3 Fast on Pro and Veo 3 on Max. Image generation offers several models, including Nano Banana.

Pricing and rights

Perplexity's own pricing pages blocked automated reading, so prices here come from multiple September 2026 third-party guides and should be confirmed on perplexity.ai: Free ($0) with limited Pro searches; Pro about $20/month; Max about $200/month; Enterprise seats from about $40. Pro includes 5 video credits a month and Max 15. We could not read Perplexity's terms on commercial use of outputs for this check; its answers quote and summarise third-party sites, so verify facts and do not republish source text verbatim.

Who it is for

Bloggers, journalists, SEO writers and researchers who need sourced facts fast, and people who want several frontier models behind one subscription.

Verdict

Perplexity is a strong research companion with clear citations and a wide model menu. It is less suited to polished long-form drafting, video credits are small, and the best models sit behind the expensive Max tier.