PERPLEXITY GUIDE

Perplexity AI

Real-time research with sources you can verify

What is Perplexity for business?

Perplexity AI is the fastest-growing AI research platform — a search engine rebuilt from the ground up around AI synthesis and real-time web access. Unlike other AI tools that rely on training data with a knowledge cutoff, Perplexity retrieves live information and presents it with clear citations for every claim. It is the best AI tool for competitive intelligence, regulatory monitoring, market research, and any task where accuracy and verifiability are non-negotiable.

Real-time web access with cited sources — no knowledge cutoff, no unverifiable claims
Deep Research produces comprehensive autonomous research reports in minutes
Spaces enable shared research environments for entire teams
Sonar API provides real-time search capabilities for developers integrating live web data

ECOSYSTEM MAP

The Perplexity ecosystem, mapped.

Every tool in the Perplexity suite — what it does, which plan you need, and how the pieces fit together.

TOOL GUIDE

What each tool does.

Search & Research

Perplexity

Free tier

Best for: Real-time questions with cited answers

The core Perplexity experience: ask any question and receive a synthesised, cited answer drawn from real-time web search. Every claim links to its source, making it instantly verifiable — a significant advantage over AI tools that generate plausible-sounding but unverifiable responses. The free tier uses Perplexity's own Sonar model.

Perplexity Pro

Paid / Pro

Best for: Advanced research with choice of AI model

Pro unlocks access to GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, and Sonar Huge as the reasoning engine — allowing users to choose the model best suited to each research task. Higher query limits, file upload support, and image generation are included. The right tier for professionals using Perplexity as a primary research tool.

Deep Research

Paid / Pro

Best for: Comprehensive autonomous research reports

Deep Research runs autonomously — searching, reading, and synthesising dozens of sources before producing a comprehensive, structured report with full citations. It performs the equivalent of several hours of human desk research in three to five minutes. Ideal for market analysis, competitor intelligence, and due diligence starting points.

Models

Sonar

Paid / Pro

Best for: Search-optimised reasoning and retrieval

Sonar is Perplexity's own large language model, specifically trained for web-grounded reasoning — combining search retrieval with language generation in a single optimised system. It is faster and more cost-efficient than using third-party models for search-heavy tasks, and powers the default Perplexity experience.

Sonar Huge

Enterprise

Best for: Maximum capability for complex research tasks

Sonar Huge is Perplexity's largest and most capable proprietary model — available via the API and Enterprise Pro plans. It delivers deeper reasoning and synthesis than standard Sonar, and is suited to complex multi-source research tasks that require sustained analytical depth alongside real-time retrieval.

Collaborate

Spaces

Paid / Pro

Best for: Shared AI research environments for teams

Spaces are collaborative research environments where teams work together within a shared AI context. Members can upload shared documents, set a shared system prompt, and build on each other's research threads — making it the closest Perplexity gets to a true team research platform. Ideal for ongoing market monitoring or client research programmes.

Collections

Paid / Pro

Best for: Saving and organising research threads

Collections allow users to save, organise, and revisit research conversations grouped by topic or project. Useful for maintaining a running research library across an ongoing project — preserving context and sources without needing to repeat searches.

Pages

Paid / Pro

Best for: Turning research into shareable reports

Pages converts Perplexity research into formatted, shareable web-based reports with a polished layout. Research compiled in Perplexity can be exported as a Pages document, making it suitable for client delivery, team briefing documents, or internal knowledge bases without additional formatting work.

Enterprise

Enterprise Pro

Enterprise

Best for: Private, secure research for organisations

Perplexity Enterprise Pro adds SSO, admin controls, private search (conversations not used for training), usage analytics, and unlimited queries for all team members. Designed for organisations where research involves sensitive or confidential information that cannot be shared with a general AI platform.

Sonar API

Enterprise

Best for: Real-time web search in your applications

The Sonar API provides developer access to Perplexity's real-time search and synthesis capabilities — enabling applications to query the live web through an AI layer. Used for building research tools, automated briefing systems, and products where up-to-date information is a core requirement.

IN PRACTICE

Perplexity at work: real scenarios.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

The situation

A hedge fund research team manually scans 200+ sources weekly to track competitor activity, regulatory changes, and macro developments. The process is labour-intensive, inconsistent, and frequently misses relevant developments.

The result

A weekly intelligence brief produced by Deep Research covers 300+ sources in 45 minutes. The full research team contributes questions and builds on findings within a shared Space. Coverage triples with no additional headcount, and the team shifts from information gathering to analysis and decision-making.

MARKETING

The situation

A digital marketing agency's strategists spend two to three days researching each new client category from scratch before strategy development begins — a significant cost on every new account.

The result

Category research is assembled in a shared Space where all team members contribute and build on each other's queries. Deep Research produces a comprehensive competitive landscape and consumer trends brief. Pages exports a formatted report for client sign-off. The research phase compresses from three days to four hours without sacrificing depth.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

The situation

A regulatory compliance consultancy tracks legislative and regulatory changes across eight jurisdictions for 15 client sectors. Missing a material change can result in client penalties and reputational damage.

The result

Research routines built in Perplexity Pro monitor regulatory activity continuously. Deep Research produces monthly jurisdiction-by-sector summary reports with full source citations. No material regulatory change is missed across a six-month tracking period, and consultant monitoring time reduces by 60%.

REAL ESTATE

The situation

A buyers' agency produces suburb analysis reports for each buyer client. Each report draws on sales data, infrastructure developments, demographic trends, school rankings, and local news — typically five to six hours of research per report.

The result

Deep Research pulls suburb history, recent sales, infrastructure pipeline, demographic trends, and school data from multiple sources simultaneously. Pages formats the output into a client-ready report with citations throughout. Research time drops from five hours to 45 minutes, and agents can serve three times more clients with the same team.

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