Verdict
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity answers questions by searching the web and citing what it used. The citation is the product: you can click through and judge the source yourself.
What it does well
Current-information questions — pricing, availability, who holds a role, what changed recently — where a general assistant is likely to answer from stale training data.
Who should use it
Anyone whose work requires a checkable source: consultants, journalists, students, analysts.
Who should not use it
People who mainly need long-form drafting or document work. It is a research surface, not a writing environment.
Note: we have not verified Perplexity’s current paid pricing, so no figure is shown above. Check their site before subscribing.
Related reading
How we tested
Same source documents
Same job, every tool
One prompt per job
No re-rolls
Human review
Two editors, blind
Scored against the rubric
Published Aug 2026
Where it fits
Good for
- Fact-checking a claim before it goes in client work
- Market and competitor research
- Current-events summaries
Not for
- Deep academic or highly specialised technical research
Pros
- Every claim comes with a citation
- Fast for current-events and market questions
- Good at surfacing competing viewpoints
Cons
- Shallow on niche technical topics
- Citation quality varies by source