Perplexity
Cited search that was worth paying for. Then the other tools caught up. Downgraded to free.
What I use it for
Pricing
Free tier available; Pro at $20/mo. Recently downgraded to free.
Where it shines
- Cited, synthesized answers save real research time.
- Pro search digs deeper and follows up on ambiguous queries.
- Collections feature organizes ongoing research threads.
Where it struggles
- Too much overlap now. Other tools have caught up on web search.
- Their computer use feature is redundant to Claude.
- Used their Comet browser for a while but went back to Chrome for the Claude plugin.
- Can be confidently wrong when sources disagree.
Notes
Was a paying Pro subscriber and used their Comet browser as my daily driver for a while. Recently downgraded to free. The overlap with other tools became too much — web search has caught up across Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, and Perplexity's computer use feature is redundant to Claude's. Went back to Chrome specifically for the Claude browser plugin. Still use it on iPhone where it's close to a daily driver, but web data underrepresents that mobile use.
How to try it
Visit perplexity.ai and ask a nuanced question you'd normally spend 10 minutes researching. The free tier is enough to see the value.
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