Is Perplexity free? Here's exactly what $0 gets you, checked against Perplexity's own numbers

What free actually includes, per Perplexity's own Help Center

Feature                           Free               Pro ($20/mo)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro Searches                       3 / day            Unlimited*
Research queries                   1 / month          Unlimited*
Comet Assistant (agentic browsing) No                 Yes (credit-metered)
Create files and apps              No                 Yes
Advanced AI model picker            No                 Yes
Image generation                    No                 Yes
Default AI model                    Perplexity's own   Choice of several
                                     default only       (Sonar 2, GPT-5.6
                                                          Terra, Claude
                                                          Sonnet 5, etc.)

*"Unlimited" on Pro is Perplexity's own wording for these two rows; file
uploads and Comet Assistant use a separate rolling credit/allowance system
on paid tiers, covered further down.

Source: Perplexity's "Which Perplexity subscription plan is right for
you?" Help Center article, last modified 8 October 2026.

That 3-a-day, 1-a-month pairing is the most current, most directly sourced number available: it comes from a Perplexity-hosted, server-rendered Help Center page with a real modification date, not a cached pricing page or a third-party aggregator's running total. It also matches an independent, organic confirmation: a February 2026 feature-request post on Perplexity's own community forum, from a user frustrated that "Free Tier users often waste their 3 pro searches on useless queries," proposing a token-based alternative. Nobody at Perplexity replied to that specific thread, but the number lines up with the Help Center's own table months later.

Why so many guides still say "5 a day"

Perplexity's consumer-facing marketing pages, perplexity.ai/pricing and the plan pages linked from its homepage, are built as a client-rendered JavaScript app. A plain fetch of those URLs returns an empty page shell with no pricing data at all; we confirmed this directly rather than assuming it. That matters because most automated content and comparison tools build their numbers by scraping exactly those kinds of pages, and when a page returns nothing useful, the fallback is often an older cached version or a competitor's secondhand summary. Among the four third-party guides we checked for this piece, the oldest-dated one (around August-September 2025) states 5 Pro Searches a day; the two more recently updated ones correctly state 3 a day and 1 Research query a month, matching Perplexity's own current page. If you're reading a guide that states 5 a day without a visible update date, treat it as stale.

Comet the browser vs. "Computer" the agent: the mix-up almost everyone makes

This is worth separating clearly, because it's the single most common point of confusion in Perplexity coverage, including some of our own earlier research before we checked the primary source directly. Comet, the actual web browser (bookmarks, extensions, ad-blocking, an Ask/Summarize button on any page), has been free and fully unrestricted for everyone since 2 October 2025, no account tier required. Perplexity Computer, sometimes called Comet Assistant or Work mode, the feature that lets the browser carry out multi-step tasks on your behalf (filling forms, navigating a checkout, compiling research across tabs), is a completely different thing, and Perplexity's own credits page states plainly: "Computer isn't available on free accounts."

Paid access to Computer runs on a credit system, not a flat "unlimited" label: Pro gets a one-time 4,000-credit bonus that expires around 30 days after it's granted, plus a weekly included-usage allowance that Perplexity describes as still gradually rolling out; Max gets 10,000 credits a month plus a larger 35,000-credit bonus. None of that is available on Free at any level. If you've read that "Comet is free now" and expected the agentic features to come with it, that's the gap: the browser itself is free, the agent running inside it is not.

What model are you actually talking to on the free tier?

Free accounts get Perplexity's own default, internally labeled "Best," model with no ability to pick a different one. Paid plans unlock a model picker; per Perplexity's own current model-availability article (a snapshot dated 4 September 2026), that list includes Sonar 2, GPT-5.6 Terra (Pro and Max), GPT-5.6 Sol (Max only), Gemini 3.7 Flash, Claude Sonnet 5 (Pro and Max), Claude Opus 5 (Max only), Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, Grok 4.6 and Nemotron 3 Ultra. Perplexity states this list is a snapshot, not a commitment to keep any individual model available, and that the model selector inside the app is always the final source of truth for your account.

File uploads: capped everywhere, just more generous on paid plans

Every tier shares the same 40MB per-file ceiling, across all file types. What differs is the allowance for how many files you can have active at once: Perplexity uses a rolling weekly system rather than a fixed monthly quota, where an uploaded file "ages out" of your active count roughly a week after you attach it. Free accounts get the smallest allowance, and Perplexity doesn't publish the exact number; when you hit it, you get an upgrade prompt rather than a hard error with a visible countdown. Perplexity also doesn't offer the "Create files and apps" feature (Labs-style document/app generation) on Free at all, regardless of upload count.

What breaks on the free tier, in practice

• "Enhanced queries exhausted" is the message free users see after their third Pro Search of the day. Try a fourth and the toggle for Pro Search simply won't apply; your question still runs, just as a standard Quick Search against Perplexity's own Sonar model instead of the deeper, multi-step mode. Nothing is blocked outright, the enhanced step is just unavailable until the daily counter resets.
• Trial and promotional subscriptions downgrade automatically. Perplexity's own plan-comparison FAQ states that promotional or trial subscribers must add a payment method within 7 days of being notified, or they're auto-downgraded to Free with no credit for missed time.
• Free users can still opt out of AI-training data use, despite the main plan-comparison table listing Free's data privacy as simply "Standard," which reads like there's no control. A separate, more specific Perplexity article on data collection confirms Free, Pro and Max users can all turn this off from Account, then Preferences, then the "AI data retention" toggle.

Free vs. Pro vs. Max, at a glance

Tier     Price          Pro Searches     Research       Comet Computer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Free      $0             3 / day          1 / month      No
Pro       $20/mo         Unlimited*        Unlimited*     Credit-metered,
                                                             bonus + weekly
                                                             allowance
Max       $200/mo        Unlimited*        Unlimited*     10,000 credits/mo
                                                             + 35,000 bonus

See our dedicated breakdowns of [Perplexity's Max tier](/guides/perplexity-max-plan)
and the [current student discount](/guides/perplexity-student-discount)
for the deeper pricing and eligibility detail on the two paid plans.

Is the free tier enough for real research work?

For an occasional lookup, yes: three enhanced searches a day covers a casual user who just wants a sourced answer now and then, and the default model is perfectly usable for straightforward questions. It stops being enough the moment your work has multiple steps: one Research query a month is thin for anyone doing recurring literature scans, and zero Comet Assistant access means any workflow that needs the browser to actually act on your behalf, filling out forms, pulling from several tabs, is a Pro or Max feature only. If you already use Gemini Notebook for source-grounded research synthesis, Perplexity's free tier is a reasonable supplement for quick, open-web fact-checks alongside it, not a replacement for it; its own strength is live web search, not grounding answers in documents you've already gathered.

People also ask

Is Perplexity actually free?

Yes, there's a genuine no-cost tier: 3 Pro Searches a day and 1 Research query a month, per Perplexity's own Help Center as of 8 October 2026. It's not a time-limited trial; it's a permanent free plan, just a limited one.

How many searches do you get per day on Perplexity free?

3 enhanced "Pro Searches" a day, confirmed directly from Perplexity's current Help Center page. Standard search isn't capped the same way. Older guides citing 5 a day are referencing a since-changed, outdated limit.

Is Comet free on Perplexity's free plan?

The Comet browser itself is free for everyone, with no account tier required, since 2 October 2025. Comet's agentic "Computer" feature, which performs multi-step tasks for you, is explicitly not available on free accounts at all, per Perplexity's own page.

Can free Perplexity users opt out of AI training on their data?

Yes. Despite the main plan-comparison table labeling Free's data privacy as just "Standard," Perplexity's dedicated data-collection article confirms Free, Pro and Max users can all control this through Account Settings.

What AI model does Perplexity use on the free tier?

Free accounts get only Perplexity's own default, internally called "Best," model, with no ability to manually select GPT, Claude, Gemini or other underlying models. That model picker is a paid-plan feature only.

Is Perplexity's free tier better than ChatGPT's or Gemini's free tier?

They're not directly comparable, since each free tier limits something different: Perplexity caps enhanced web-search queries, ChatGPT and Gemini cap message volume and model access on their own free plans. If live, cited web search is what you need most, Perplexity's free tier covers that specific job better; for general chat or document work, the others may fit better.