Home › RAG and Search › Perplexity

Perplexity - AI RAG and Search Tool

Overview

Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine and search assistant that combines large-language model reasoning with real-time web browsing to deliver concise, sourced answers. According to Perplexity's website, the tool synthesizes content from multiple web sources and returns short summaries with inline citations and links so users can verify claims and dig into original sources. The interface supports conversational follow-up questions, enabling iterative research workflows where each query can refine or expand the prior answer. Perplexity targets tasks from quick factual lookups to deeper research and multimodal Q&A. It supports file and image question-answering—letting users ask about the contents of an uploaded PDF or image—and is available on web and mobile. The product offers both free and Pro tiers (details not provided here). Typical use cases include compiling comparative summaries of news coverage, extracting key points from research papers, and asking targeted questions about a specific uploaded document or photo. According to the product site, Perplexity emphasizes transparency through source citations and a conversational search experience that reduces the need to open many tabs.

Key Features

  • Real-time web browsing that synthesizes multiple web sources into a single answer with inline citations.
  • Conversational follow-up questions that refine or expand previous answers without restarting context.
  • File Q&A: ask questions about uploaded PDFs and documents to extract summaries or specific data.
  • Image Q&A: upload images and receive descriptive answers or analysis tied to content in the image.
  • Web and mobile apps with free and Pro tiers for personal research and faster access.
Last Refreshed: 2026-01-09

Key Information

  • Category: RAG and Search
  • Type: AI RAG and Search Tool
Visit Official Website

Related Tools

Crawl4AI

An open-source, LLM-friendly tool designed to crawl and extract data, facilitating content aggregation for AI applications.
Perplexica

Open-source AI-powered search engine that performs deep web research to generate and cite answers.
GPT Researcher

An LLM-based autonomous agent that conducts deep local and web research on any topic and generates long reports with citations, with support for connecting to specialized data sources.
Maxun

An open-source no-code web data extraction platform that lets users train a robot in minutes to automatically scrape websites and convert them into APIs and spreadsheets.
Auto-Deep-Research

An open-source, fully-automated personal AI assistant that serves as a cost-effective alternative to OpenAI's Deep Research. Built on the AutoAgent framework, it supports integration with various LLMs, function-calling interactions, file uploads, and a one-click launch for effortless research automation.
Open Deep Research Agent

An open–source deep research AI agent that utilizes reasoning models to conduct in–depth factual research. It separates planning and research execution for detailed report generation.