Perplexity makes its agentic AI browser Comet free for everyone to compete with Google

Perplexity has made its agentic AI browser, Comet, free for Mac and Windows users. Powered by Perplexity’s search engine, the browser is designed to help users working on the internet for work, research and other tasks.

All you need to know about Comet

Previously limited to Perplexity Max subscribers, Comet is different from traditional browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. Instead of a tabbed interface, this has a workspace which gives users quick access to all the information they are looking for.

In the last few months, millions of users had already joined the browser’s waitlist to try it out.

The browser’s main feature is the AI-powered Comet Assistant, which you can bring up like Copilot in Edge. Using the AI assistant, users can ask questions about a webpage, summarise content, and even navigate web pages on their behalf.

Perplexity AI’s Comet can track what a user is looking at, what they have read, and what they are working on, and suggest related content based on their preferences.

The browser also closes inactive tabs after a while and sends reminders of what they were doing in their previous sessions.

Comet was introduced in July for $200 per month to Perplexity Max subscribers. Company CEO Aravind Srinivas noted in his announcement that the “waitlist of 460,000 users quickly grew to millions.” 

The AI browser can efficiently search the web, write emails and summarise content. 

An interesting feature available for paying users is the new “background assistant”, which can perform multiple tasks on your system in the background while you do other work.

Perplexity Comet wants to bypass the challenges of dealing with traditional search engines and is targeting users who use the internet for work.

This may lead to a slower adoption rate, but users who browse the web every day for work might find it more helpful than simple browsers like Opera and Chrome.

Notably, only a few days ago, Opera launched an AI-powered browser called Neon that can run code and perform tasks. 

OpenAI is also expected to launch its AI browser as previously announced. 

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