What Is Perplexity.ai?
Perplexity.ai is an AI search engine rated 2.3/5 on Trustpilot (based on 70 reviews), which indicates that most users are dissatisfied with the tool. Most reviews complain about the inaccuracy of the tool’s output, difficulties in crafting effective prompts, and bugs. Perplexity is ranked 8th among our AI writing tools, with a rating of 3.4/5.
Perplexity.ai was built to upend the way we search for information online. Imagine it: you just have to enter your answer, and Perplexity.ai returns a comprehensive answer with citations. Available for free, this AI-powered tool can also answer questions on file uploads and solve problems.
To write our perplexity.ai review, we tinkered with the tool ourselves, read the fine print, and analyzed customer reviews. We also compared the tool’s output and user experience to other AI writing tools we’ve reviewed so far.
Spoiler alert: Perplexity.ai may be free to use, but it’s not exactly a reliable research partner that it paints itself to be.
Perplexity: Our Overall Impression
The promise of Perplexity.ai is alluring: link-free search with real-time information and reliable sources. Yes, its creators want Perplexity to become a more convenient alternative to Google search itself.
But as fast and convenient as search with perplexity.ai may be, it’s not always reliable, as we discovered while testing the tool.
Of course, the tool has its perks. It’s free to use, for one. Unlike some AI chatbots, when you enter a query, you receive an answer with citations. So, you can verify the sources for specific claims. Finally, Perplexity is connected to the internet, so you can always get the most up-to-date information.
The main problem with using Perplexity for anything academia-related is that it doesn’t know the difference between reputable and not-so-reputable sources. One answer can mix sources like no-name blogs and university websites or encyclopedias like Britannica. Because of that, we found ourselves having to click links anyway – just to verify the source’s credibility.
As for generating essays, the problem remains the same. While you can get something resembling an essay out of Perplexity, the cited links lead to less-than-reputable sources. The structure and flow of information also leave much to be desired.
How Perplexity Works: Free Version
While Trustpilot Perplexity AI reviews painted a bleak picture, we had to see how the tool fares for ourselves. We started with entering search queries into the free version of Perplexity:
In the example, the contents themselves weren’t bad, but the sources weren’t all reliable. You can see that the tool links to both SimplyPsychology, a blog of unknown origins, and Maryville University – a weird mix.
All in all, it’s fine if you just need to bring yourself up to speed on a basic topic quickly.
The tool also has a People Also Ask section like Google search results and supports follow-up questions. Both are handy – but not exceptional in any way.
Then, we decided to ask Perplexity to generate a five-page essay. To our surprise, it did produce something resembling an essay, although the output didn’t follow paper conventions in terms of structure:
We also ran into the same problem with sourcing. This time, Perplexity mostly cited the websites with free essay samples – definitely not something you can add to the references section.
What About Pro Search Results?
Now, would the Pro search be that different from free results? We decided to compare the two ourselves for this review of Perplexity AI. Perplexity took a bit more time to generate the response:
Pro responses cite more sources (17 vs. 7) and seem to lean more toward academic materials. That said, some of the papers cited were low-quality. Links also included non-academic sources like Psychology Today, a tutor website, and a study platform. Once we asked the tool to generate an essay on the topic in the follow-up field… it did, but with zero citations!
The generated essay’s structure also didn’t fully comply with paper conventions. Plus, it was surprisingly less in-depth and detailed than the response right above it.
We also decided to give the Deep Research feature a go. It took a lot longer to return the response, but the tool described what it was doing step by step. It took Perplexity a couple of minutes to generate the report:
It contained even more sources (33) but had the same drawback. Academic sources were mixed with tutoring websites, blogs, and even Wikipedia and LinkedIn.
Perplexity’s Reasoning Models: A Silver Lining
After we decided to review Perplexity AI, we quickly unearthed the fact that Perplexity allows you to query reasoning models. There are two of them, Deepseek R1 and OpenAI’s o3-mini. These reasoning models are designed for concrete problem-solving and logical reasoning.
We decided to take Deep Reasoning for a spin and asked it to explain obfuscated code. We decided to take Deep Reasoning for a spin and asked it to explain obfuscated code. Perplexity took a couple of minutes to produce the result, describing the steps in the process. However, the final response resembled the search result output.
Overall, the response was correct. On top of that, it cited several sources, which were again a mixed bag of Wikipedia, Microsoft forums, university websites, and code documentation. While sourcing wasn’t perfect, the reasoning model could come in handy if you struggle with problem-solving in your studies.
Perplexity AI Pricing: Quick Overview
How much does Perplexity AI cost? Well, the tool scores a substantial advantage against many other AI rivals: it has a free version that doesn’t feel too watered down.
With it, you can perform as many free searches as you’d like, along with five enhanced searches and 10 file uploads a day. Enhanced searches include Pro searches (up to 3), Deep Research, and reasoning queries with Deepseek R1 and OpenAI o3-mini.
The Pro subscription costs $20/month and allows for 300+ Pro searches a day. It also unlocks unlimited file uploads and search queries with other AI models like Deepseek R1, OpenAI o3-mini, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and more.
As for discounts, this part is going to be short: there aren’t any at the moment. That said, the Pro version isn’t overly expensive.
Is the subscription worth it? It probably is if you need unlimited access to file uploads and want to send dozens of queries to reasoning models a day. Pro search on its own, however, doesn’t make the price tag reasonable.
Be careful: we found multiple reviews from users stating they got cheated or scammed on their Pro subscriptions.
File Uploads
Perplexity allows you to upload up to 10 files a day. The feature piqued our curiosity, and so we decided to see if Perplexity could be useful in summing up lengthy PDFs. To that end, we uploaded LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting report and asked the tool to sum it up.
Frankly, the result was somewhat disappointing. Perplexity seemed to just paraphrase the executive summary on the third page without even mentioning the statistics. Compare it for yourself:
So, we decided to shift gears and ask questions about the content of the PDF. This went a bit better: Perplexity could accurately list key stats from the report, for example. But when it came to specific questions on its content, Perplexity sometimes dropped the ball:
The same thing happened whenever we asked specific questions that relied on visual information in the graphs. However, when the information was explicitly mentioned in the text, the tool managed to respond well.
Perplexity’s User Experience
Perplexity is available via any browser; we used the desktop web version in our review Perplexity testing. That said, you can also use one of its mobile apps:
Overall, using Perplexity is not that different of an experience from using any other AI chatbot (ChatGPT immediately comes to mind). While overall intuitive, though, we do have one bone to pick with Perplexity. Once you head to its website, you immediately face the prompt field, without an explanation of what Perplexity is capable of.
Full disclosure: that caused some confusion on our part since we initially expected Perplexity to be more of a chatbot and less of an AI search engine.
While our experience was smooth, it’d be unfair to discount the customer feedback we found on Trustpilot. Users describe Perplexity “stuttering and dropping queries”, “going on strike and failing to respond”, and so on.
Perplexity vs. AI checks
Since Perplexity AI user reviews lacked any feedback on the responses’ performance against AI checkers, we decided to feed one of ours into Grammarly’s free AI checker. We chose the Deep Research report first and were surprised to see that Grammarly deemed only 39% of it AI-generated:
GPTZero, however, wasn’t fooled and marked the whole text as AI-generated:
Next, we decided to run the same text through a plagiarism checker. Unsurprisingly, the checks didn’t find any plagiarism, which is usually the case with AI tools – but we had to make sure.
All in all, if you want to cut corners and use Perplexity’s output verbatim in a paper, keep in mind that it might not pass the AI check. (Turnitin now automatically scans both for plagiarism and AI content!)
Perplexity: Your Snapshot
Perplexity might remove some tedium from your online search experience. But if you’re looking for sources for your assignment, you’ll still have to click links to verify every source’s reliability. So, you’re likely to find its file upload and reasoning models more useful.
Ultimately, Perplexity isn’t designed to be a writing tool per se; so, don’t expect it to return high-quality essays and such.
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Is Perplexity a good tool?
Perplexity can be useful if you want to speed up your online search processes. However, keep in mind that it doesn’t discriminate between reputable sources like academic papers and lower-quality content like blog posts.
Is Perplexity AI free?
Yes, Perplexity has a free version. It allows for unlimited free searches and five enhanced searches a day (up to three Pro searches plus Deep Research and reasoning queries). File uploads are limited to 10 a day. You’ll have to create an account to use its enhanced searches.
Is Perplexity Pro worth it?
The Pro subscription can come in handy if you want to use the Deep Research and reasoning models without any limits on the queries. That said, the difference between free and Pro online searches wasn’t that significant to justify the subscription.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI search tool that allows you to get summaries of top search results without clicking any links. It also gives you access to reasoning models for problem-solving and Deep Research for advanced report generation on certain topics.
Is Perplexity AI safe?
Like with any other AI writing tool, it’s best not to share any sensitive data with Perplexity as it may be used in the training datasets later on. You should be especially careful when uploading files to the tool.
Will Perplexity content pass an AI check?
That’s highly unlikely. When we ran one of our responses through GPTZero, the AI checker correctly identified it as AI content. At the same time, plagiarism checks shouldn’t pose a problem. N.B.: Turnitin runs both checks by default.
*Screenshots used for review and criticism purposes fall under the 'fair use' doctrine of the United States Copyright Law.
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