Perplexity AI Review
Perplexity AI, which many also just call Perplexity, is a web search engine that uses a large language model to process your queries and generate responses based on search results. It’s two weeks younger than ChatGPT (first released on December 7, 2022) and now uses engines like GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Bing for its work.
What makes it so special and different from other corresponding tools on the market? How does it work? Are there any alternatives worth trying instead?
Below is a concise yet comprehensive review of Perplexity AI to answer all user questions about this tool.
What Is Perplexity AI?
First and foremost, let’s figure out:
What is Perplexity?
It is an advanced AI-powered answer engine and search assistant designed to provide precise, real-time answers. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity doesn’t list links in response to your query. It combines NLP with live web search, responding with direct answers and citing the sources.
This feature makes Perplexity AI an excellent tool for users craving original and research-based information. It can help college students research sources for their assignments, journalists who need fact-checking, or anyone requiring statements supported with evidence rather than generated as grammatically correct yet superficial passages.
Long story short, Perplexity AI understands context, summarizes information, and shares reliable sources in real time. Its interface looks like a chat with a friend where you ask the “what,” “why,” or “how” questions and get direct, fact-based responses.
How Perplexity AI Works: Services and Functions
The tool combines AI technology with real-time search capabilities. As a result, a user gets a ready-made answer to their question, with reliable sources for each statement Perplexity provides.
Let’s move to its main features:
- Conversational Search: The tool understands and interprets questions in natural language. It responds in a conversational manner that feels like chatting with an expert.
- Real-Time Web Search: Perplexity performs internet searches across authoritative sources like articles, journals, and websites to gather the most relevant and up-to-date information.
- Answer Synthesis With Citations: It doesn’t just list links but synthesizes the information into summaries and includes citations to the sources, allowing users to verify its claims.
- Contextual Memory: Perplexity remembers the context of your previous queries, and its follow-up questions don’t repeat already-provided information.
You can use Perplexity AI for general research, content creation, business intelligence, developer assistance, and more. It delivers accurate, easy-to-understand answers tailored to complex or simple queries alike, working in two possible modes:
- Quick Search for fast, Wikipedia-like answers
- Pro Search for more detailed responses and follow-up questions to refine results
The tool integrates with various data sources, connecting to public internet data, user-uploaded documents, enterprise knowledge bases, and third-party databases via APIs for comprehensive answers. If you choose the Pro version when working with Perplexity, you can also generate and edit images (with models like DALL·E 3 and Stable Diffusion XL) and simple code.
User Experiences With Perplexity AI
Most Perplexity reviews praise the tool for its clean and intuitive interface:
It has a search-style layout that makes it easy to ask questions, scan results, and explore the sources provided. At the same time, interacting with Perplexity is reminiscent of a live chat with a friend or an expert, where you can ask follow-up questions to refine the answers for better transparency or more details.
One can use Perplexity without signing up, though a free account (you can sign up with your Google account) unlocks some extra features. You will be able to customize it according to your topics of interest and save history, and go Pro for extra powers such as:
- GPT-4 integration
- Custom file uploads
- End-to-end encryption
- Private browsing (perfect for sensitive research topics)
Also, Perplexity AI offers a fast mobile app, which is convenient for students or researchers working across several devices.
Perplexity AI Pricing: Compared to Alternatives
You can use Perplexity AI for free: Its free version remains powerful enough for casual research tasks, and it gives you some Pro searches daily. Of course, subscribers have expanded access to features and benefits such as advanced AI models, priority support, higher query limits, enhanced integrations, and so on.
Here’s Perplexity pricing at a glance. Also, let’s compare it with that of Textero for a more transparent look at the alternatives:
| Perplexity AI | Textero | |
| Free plan | ✅ Unlimited quick searches ✅ 3 pro searches per day ✅ Access to the standard AI model ✅ Basic file uploads and follow-up questions | ✅ 550 AI words per day ✅ 2-page essays ✅ Basic AI detection ✅ Unlimited PDF uploads ✅ AI editing commands |
| Pro plan | ✅ $20 per month or $200 per year ✅ Unlimited quick searches ✅ 300+ pro searches per day ✅ Choice of advanced AI models (GPT-4o, Claude 3, Sonar Large, etc.) ✅ Unlimited file uploads and image generation ✅ $5 monthly API credit ✅ Access to advanced features like file analysis and image generation | ✅ $8.33 per month or $99.99 per year ✅ Unlimited AI words per day ✅ 25-page essays ✅ Unlimited AI detection ✅ Unlimited PDF uploads ✅ Deep Research |
Perplexity AI vs. Textero: A Side-by-Side Comparison
For those in doubt about whether the tool will fit all their content needs, below is a side-by-side comparison with a possible Perplexity alternative, Textero:
| Perplexity AI | Textero | |
| Content generation | Generates short or detailed answers to user questions, supporting each claim with relevant sources from the web; understands the context; allows its answers’ refinement; doesn’t fit for generating ready-made academic essays or other papers from scratch | Generates standard academic papers and more complex projects of up to 20k words; understands the context and considers sources; allows editing; assists with research on topic-focused drafts |
| Citation and research | Synthesizes information from online sources into concise summaries, each accompanied by references; formats references as numbered citations; doesn’t structure them according to the rules of academic writing | A built-in citation generator to manage context-aware writing and sources from its library; also, it allows users to upload custom sources |
| Pricing | Free version with pro searches limits; expanded access and extra features — for $20 per month | Free version with word limits; unlimited access and extra features — for $8.33 per month |
| User experience | A clean, intuitive interface resembling a chat window; available with no sign-up; handles complex queries but sometimes provides excessive information | A clean layout with numerous customization options for precise writing and editing; academic focus and writing help at every level |
| Best for | Students, journalists, and researchers looking for evidence-based information | Academic writers, researchers, and college students at every academic level |
The Final Verdict
Perplexity AI is a perfect tool to use as an alternative to standard search engines if you need direct answers to your queries instead of a list of links for further investigation.
It can be helpful for students or researchers craving credible information for their academic work. Also, it may come in handy in business settings to explore trends, answer tech or legal questions, conduct market research, or summarize long reports to save time. Its free version is user-friendly and accurate enough to try for everyday learning on the subjects of your interest.
Perplexity free AI writing won’t generate a unique and context-aware text from scratch like Textero or other corresponding services. However, it can help with reference-based summaries, thus streamlining your research process.
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