Early Access to Perplexity’s AI Browser Is Expensive, but You Can Try It for Free Right Now
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If you’ve been checking out Comet, Perplexity’s AI-powered web browser, you probably know that it’s well-protected. Perplexity limited testing to a small group of Max subscribers, who subscribe for $200 a month . Unless you’re willing to spend $2,400 a year on an AI subscription, you’re probably resigned to learning Comet from afar.
While Perplexity Max will remain priced at $200 per month for the foreseeable future, you don’t have to pay that much to try Comet. In fact, you don’t have to pay anything at all . That’s because Perplexity is now offering free access to both Comet and Perplexity Pro, the company’s $20 per month ($200 per year) subscription for one year.
The deal is between PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo. The company announced the partnership in a press release on Wednesday, pitching the news as an AI-powered shopping experience for PayPal users. Ryan Futti, vice president of business at Perplexity, said, “The Comet browser is like a personal shopper and personal assistant all rolled into one, so we’re excited for PayPal users to have early access to Comet.”
Whether users will think of Comet as a “personal shopper” is unclear. Perplexity, for its part, markets Comet as an AI-powered browser that doubles as a “personal assistant” and “thinking partner.” You can search for information like any other AI-powered internet chatbot, but Comet can also perform tasks on your behalf. This reportedly includes shopping, as well as things like scheduling appointments, replying to emails, finding information, and autofilling passwords.
PayPal is offering Perplexity Pro and Comet through its new Subscription Center . The company says the feature is designed to help users manage their subscriptions in one place. To get started, a trial and subscription for Perplexity Pro can be found here . As part of the promotion, if you sign up and pay for at least three subscriptions in this new center, PayPal will credit you with $50 cash back.
How to Register for Perplexity Pro and Comet for Free
If you’re interested in this offer, you have two ways to take advantage of it. PayPal suggests checking out the promotion in either the PayPal app or the Venmo app. I didn’t find the promotion in the Venmo app, but after downloading the PayPal app and logging into my account, I saw Perplexity Pro under “Featured Offers.”
You must link your PayPal or Venmo to your Perplexity subscription, and create a Perplexity account if you don’t already have one. If you have a Perplexity Pro subscription, you won’t be able to take advantage of this offer.
While my Perplexity Pro subscription activated without issue, I am not yet able to take advantage of Comet’s offer. Right now, when I go to the official Comet website and sign in to my account, I can choose to either join the waitlist or jump the queue to Pro. If I choose the latter, since I already have Pro, I am simply redirected to a page with information about the benefits of the Pro plan, even though Comet is not mentioned there.
Perplexity may be slow to do this. I’ve put my account on a waitlist for now, just to see if that speeds things up.