How Perplexity AI Stands up to Google and ChatGPT
In 2024, there are two ways to research anything online: you can run a Google search, or you can ask a detailed question to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini. Ideally, you should do both: switch between web pages provided by Google and responses from ChatGPT, check for AI hallucinations , and find the most reliable sources.
What if there was one tool that could do both? This is exactly the niche Perplexity AI aims to fill.
Perplexity combines search and artificial intelligence
Perplexity AI combines online search with popular existing artificial intelligence models in a way that is potentially very useful. A key limitation of some AI models, including ChatGPT, is that they are trained on data that is one or two years old. (At least the ones that can’t connect to the Internet.) They can’t give you the latest information on new scientific papers or even chat on Reddit.
Perplexity has its own search engine that scours the Internet and collects the latest information. Then it does something even better: when it gives you this information, it cites sources, just like a reliable search engine would. This way, you can determine whether they are trustworthy without having to do the extra work of directly checking every fact and figure.
Perplexity still works like a chatbot: you create a new topic, enter a hint, and expand it with additional questions. You can also rename or delete topics.
Search results are displayed directly in the chatbot’s user interface. You’ll see a sources section at the top so you can quickly open the website and check if it’s really what you’re looking for. Perplexity also shows you images and YouTube videos when needed, so you can rely on those visual cues as well. This is especially useful when you’re trying to find a solution to a technical problem or, say, looking for ingredients for a recipe.
When you start a search, you can use one of the Focus features to search only certain parts of the Internet. For example, you can search scientific articles online to find scientific answers, or you can search only on Reddit to see an abbreviated report of the prevailing opinions on a particular issue.
Combine all of this and you get a better experience than using just Google Search or ChatGPT. I’ve been testing Perplexity AI for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve gotten into the habit of starting research on a new topic from within Perplexity rather than going down one of these separate directions.
Five AIs are better than one
If you decide to pay $20 per month for Perplexity Pro, the app will give you a selection of popular AI models to choose from. You can choose the default option for all queries and switch between them on the fly. Let’s say you receive a response in GPT-4 format that you don’t like; you can ask Perplexity to rewrite it using Claude’s Opus model, or try Perplexity’s own experimental model to get faster answers to simpler queries.
By default, Perplexity uses an enhanced version of GPT 3.5 for things like language processing and text generation. The Pro plan gives you access to Open AI’s GPT-4 Turbo, Claude’s newest Opus models (limited to 5 searches per day, after which you’ll be upgraded to Claude 3 Sonnet), larger Mistral models, and the experimental Perplexity model.
Professional search for anyone
In the Perplexity prompt window there is a small switch labeled Pro . Turn it on and it will run everything at full capacity, using GPT-4 by default. Before giving you an answer, he may even ask you to clarify using a follow-up question. Perplexity then scours the Internet for what it believes are the best resources. Free users can receive additional Pro requests every four hours, and subscribers receive 600 Pro requests per day. If you’re paying for the Pro model, you might want to just turn the Pro feature on all the time, since you’re unlikely to exceed 600 requests in a single day.
It’s not the only one
Perplexity isn’t the only AI search game. While Google Search’s generative AI feature is still slow, Gemini is starting to catch up as it also allows you to cross-check results by running a search on Google. Microsoft Copilot, on the other hand, works in the same way as Perplexity AI, providing you with sources along with the generated text. Copilot also uses ChatGPT-4 Turbo in the free tier, while Turbo is limited to Perplexity Pro search.
However, Microsoft Copilot depends on Bing search, while Perplexity uses its own search engine. Copilot works best in Edge, although it is also available on the web and through mobile apps. Microsoft Copilot also gives you answers pretty quickly.
Ultimately, which tool to choose depends on experience. If you enjoy using Microsoft Edge and are a full-time user of Microsoft products, using Copilot as a research tool may be your best choice. But if you want a minimal, fast experience that’s customizable and works well on any platform, try Perplexity AI.
Good starting point
Overall, Perplexity AI provides a good starting point for anything you explore. His answers are generally direct and to the point, and make excellent use of formatting—you’ll find answers divided into headings, bullet points, and organized paragraphs.
But it’s important to note that Perplexity is best suited as a research tool for finding answers, facts, and information rather than for generating text. Even though it has generative text focus, it is not very good at outputting creative text. In testing, I found the copy to be a bit boring and uninteresting to read compared to what you’ll get from tools like Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini, or even dedicated writing tools built on GPT-4.
On the other hand, Perplexity’s free plan will actually be sufficient for most users. Even in its free plan, GPT-3.5 does a decent job of bringing together the best results from the web in an easy-to-read interface. But if you want to use an AI tool for research and work, the $20 upgrade is a great deal. Essentially, you get powerful web search and access to GPT-4 and other LLMs for the same price as ChatGPT Plus.
Perplexity AI is available on the web and can be accessed using mobile apps and the Chrome extension . This is also the default search engine option in the Arc browser.