{"slug": "perplexity", "name": "Perplexity", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "AI-powered answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.", "recommenders": 9, "commenters": 34, "warners": 10, "score": 2.739, "rising": -1.62, "first": "2025-11-20", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "Liked as a Google replacement that shows its sources and handles niche or quick queries well.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 9, "neutral": 13, "compare": 2, "warn": 10}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Search replacement", "Source citations"], "caveat": "Declining quality", "short_quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "icon": true, "domain": "perplexity.ai", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.perplexity.ai", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Perplexity", "Perplexity Pro"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a Google replacement that shows its sources", "cites": [{"id": 772261040, "item_id": 48266315, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266315", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries.", "excerpt": "I'm surprised that Perplexity isn't mentioned in the article or on HN. It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries. It runs circles around Google for finding anything niche or underspecified. I use it through OpenRouter - I love how the pricing is per search and isn't a subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 775968624, "item_id": 48498039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498039", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perplexity AI made searching online fun again", "excerpt": "I pardon to disagree with a but!!! As much as I don't like AI, search engines are dead even if you went De-Google like me. I use Perplexity AI as myc new search engine, it is the only one that trully shows you all the sources it use to fetch the information it is showing you allowing you to conter check. Perplexity AI made searching online fun again, be it for code, anything in general, I just use Perplexity AI. The ", "context": "De-Google user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google"}, {"id": 762481041, "item_id": 47655065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47655065", "by": "mrtksn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Of course OpenAI, Perplexity and others later implemented that properly", "excerpt": "I remember when ChatGPT exploded and Bing had it integrated, the idea was brilliant because unlike ChatGPT you didn't have information cut-off since it can access the web. I was very excited to ditch Google. How did MS actually implemented it though? After a few messages the chat is blocked because MS did not choose to walk the extra mile and maybe compact the context so that their product can be actually usable. Of ", "context": "", "use_case": "AI chat with web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold"}]}, {"text": " and handles niche or quick queries well.", "cites": [{"id": 772261040, "item_id": 48266315, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266315", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries.", "excerpt": "I'm surprised that Perplexity isn't mentioned in the article or on HN. It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries. It runs circles around Google for finding anything niche or underspecified. I use it through OpenRouter - I love how the pricing is per search and isn't a subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 752000784, "item_id": 47000049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000049", "by": "olvy0", "date": "2026-02-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "excerpt": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so. Their Sonar model is Llama running on top of a Cerebras chip, and searches the internet in an incredible speed. Its results are astonishingly good (for a Llama model), although in more niche areas it still makes mistakes, so in those areas I usually double-check its sources or do an extra ddg search myself. Actually I've ne", "context": "", "use_case": "small fast search queries", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20115.3\u2011Codex\u2011Spark"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is that answer quality has declined over time,", "cites": [{"id": 792766352, "item_id": 49547897, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547897", "by": "Grisu_FTP", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems like it gets worse and worse instead.", "excerpt": "I got a year of free Perplexity Pro with my Revolut sub. At first I really, really liked it. It felt faster, better, and smarter than (free) ChatGPT. But instead of getting better (or at worst staying at the same level), it seems like it gets worse and worse instead. For a few months now I have it that it randomly switches to another language for like 1\u20132 words (most often Japanese) mid sentence. It feels like it got", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792708976, "item_id": 49544311, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544311", "by": "jwrallie", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time", "excerpt": "More or less the same experience, I used to recommend it to others, and observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time, smooth enough that it took a while for it to register. I am just about to end my free trial, it lasted 12 months for the educational version which does not have any credits for Computer, I just canceled it on the webpage and it says it is going to be canceled at the day my renew", "context": "former user on free educational plan", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792586832, "item_id": 49536677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536677", "by": "Aurornis", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see my results appear in a second, but they\u2019re garbage.", "excerpt": "I used one of the 12-month free Perplexity offers when they were everywhere. It felt slightly useful at first for simple queries where I didn\u2019t want to go through the top 10 Google results manually. If I was looking for a specific recipe I remembered or a help page or user manual it would usually find it quickly. Then they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 750682464, "item_id": 46917654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46917654", "by": "SignorZ", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off.", "excerpt": "Yes, it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off. An AI bot responds and refuses to refund the unused portion of the subscription. In my jurisdiction (EU), this is completely illegal; I will contact the authorities and request a full refund. I used to get 600 Pro queries per day, now I get 20 per month. Support responds via AI and says the limits have been updated a", "context": "EU paying subscriber", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: 900x downgrade of Perplexity Pro \u2013 anyone else hit?"}]}, {"text": " with citations that often don't match the text.", "cites": [{"id": 792625104, "item_id": 49539069, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539069", "by": "hek2sch", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations", "excerpt": "To be honest perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations. They just look plausible. For anything little bit serious I use nouswise or nblm that sometimes abstain instead of making things up.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A third of Perplexity's citations don't contain the number they're cited for"}, {"id": 792586832, "item_id": 49536677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536677", "by": "Aurornis", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see my results appear in a second, but they\u2019re garbage.", "excerpt": "I used one of the 12-month free Perplexity offers when they were everywhere. It felt slightly useful at first for simple queries where I didn\u2019t want to go through the top 10 Google results manually. If I was looking for a specific recipe I remembered or a help page or user manual it would usually find it quickly. Then they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Search replacement", "summary": "Several commenters say it replaced Google for most non-trivial queries.", "quotes": [{"id": 772261040, "item_id": 48266315, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266315", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries.", "excerpt": "I'm surprised that Perplexity isn't mentioned in the article or on HN. It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries. It runs circles around Google for finding anything niche or underspecified. I use it through OpenRouter - I love how the pricing is per search and isn't a subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 775968624, "item_id": 48498039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498039", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perplexity AI made searching online fun again", "excerpt": "I pardon to disagree with a but!!! As much as I don't like AI, search engines are dead even if you went De-Google like me. I use Perplexity AI as myc new search engine, it is the only one that trully shows you all the sources it use to fetch the information it is showing you allowing you to conter check. Perplexity AI made searching online fun again, be it for code, anything in general, I just use Perplexity AI. The ", "context": "De-Google user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google"}, {"id": 762481041, "item_id": 47655065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47655065", "by": "mrtksn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Of course OpenAI, Perplexity and others later implemented that properly", "excerpt": "I remember when ChatGPT exploded and Bing had it integrated, the idea was brilliant because unlike ChatGPT you didn't have information cut-off since it can access the web. I was very excited to ditch Google. How did MS actually implemented it though? After a few messages the chat is blocked because MS did not choose to walk the extra mile and maybe compact the context so that their product can be actually usable. Of ", "context": "", "use_case": "AI chat with web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold"}]}, {"label": "Source citations", "summary": "Commenters value that it shows the sources behind its answers so they can check them.", "quotes": [{"id": 775968624, "item_id": 48498039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498039", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perplexity AI made searching online fun again", "excerpt": "I pardon to disagree with a but!!! As much as I don't like AI, search engines are dead even if you went De-Google like me. I use Perplexity AI as myc new search engine, it is the only one that trully shows you all the sources it use to fetch the information it is showing you allowing you to conter check. Perplexity AI made searching online fun again, be it for code, anything in general, I just use Perplexity AI. The ", "context": "De-Google user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google"}, {"id": 792591344, "item_id": 49536959, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536959", "by": "stranded22", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "So, after paying them upwards of $400-$500 and being a loyal customer, I walked.", "excerpt": "I paid for perplexity pro for 3 years. I genuinely enjoyed using it and felt it was better overall than ChatGPT etc due to the way it showed sources etc. I liked being able to use different models depending on what I was looking for, and the deep research was helpful. I think they probably damaged themselves by going for a land grab of user base through freebies. It meant the users weren\u2019t ever going to convert to pa", "context": "paid Pro subscriber for 3 years", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Fast answers", "summary": "Commenters use it for small, fast queries and found it quick.", "quotes": [{"id": 752000784, "item_id": 47000049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000049", "by": "olvy0", "date": "2026-02-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "excerpt": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so. Their Sonar model is Llama running on top of a Cerebras chip, and searches the internet in an incredible speed. Its results are astonishingly good (for a Llama model), although in more niche areas it still makes mistakes, so in those areas I usually double-check its sources or do an extra ddg search myself. Actually I've ne", "context": "", "use_case": "small fast search queries", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20115.3\u2011Codex\u2011Spark"}, {"id": 792766352, "item_id": 49547897, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547897", "by": "Grisu_FTP", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems like it gets worse and worse instead.", "excerpt": "I got a year of free Perplexity Pro with my Revolut sub. At first I really, really liked it. It felt faster, better, and smarter than (free) ChatGPT. But instead of getting better (or at worst staying at the same level), it seems like it gets worse and worse instead. For a few months now I have it that it randomly switches to another language for like 1\u20132 words (most often Japanese) mid sentence. It feels like it got", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Multiple models", "summary": "Pro users like switching between frontier models within the same thread.", "quotes": [{"id": 740443329, "item_id": 46277708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46277708", "by": "pcf", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The beauty with this availability is that any model you switch to can read the whole thread", "excerpt": "I use this model in Perplexity Pro (included in Revolut Premium), usually in threads where I alternate between Claude 4.5 Sonnet, GPT-5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, Grok 4.1 and Kimi K2. The beauty with this availability is that any model you switch to can read the whole thread, so it's able to critique and augment the answers from other models before it. I've done this for ages with the various OpenAI models inside ChatGPT, and", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-model threads", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kimi K2 1T model runs on 2 512GB M3 Ultras"}, {"id": 792591344, "item_id": 49536959, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536959", "by": "stranded22", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "So, after paying them upwards of $400-$500 and being a loyal customer, I walked.", "excerpt": "I paid for perplexity pro for 3 years. I genuinely enjoyed using it and felt it was better overall than ChatGPT etc due to the way it showed sources etc. I liked being able to use different models depending on what I was looking for, and the deep research was helpful. I think they probably damaged themselves by going for a land grab of user base through freebies. It meant the users weren\u2019t ever going to convert to pa", "context": "paid Pro subscriber for 3 years", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Deep research", "summary": "Some users rely on its deep research mode.", "quotes": [{"id": 736009696, "item_id": 46000606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46000606", "by": "nsonha", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use perplexity a lot and pretty much exclusively with \"deep research\" on.", "excerpt": "I use perplexity a lot and pretty much exclusively with \"deep research\" on. Is this on the same level? Because Perplexity often take more than a minute, and this is only 20 secs.", "context": "", "use_case": "deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi Assistants"}, {"id": 792591344, "item_id": 49536959, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536959", "by": "stranded22", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "So, after paying them upwards of $400-$500 and being a loyal customer, I walked.", "excerpt": "I paid for perplexity pro for 3 years. I genuinely enjoyed using it and felt it was better overall than ChatGPT etc due to the way it showed sources etc. I liked being able to use different models depending on what I was looking for, and the deep research was helpful. I think they probably damaged themselves by going for a land grab of user base through freebies. It meant the users weren\u2019t ever going to convert to pa", "context": "paid Pro subscriber for 3 years", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Generous free tier", "summary": "Its free tier is described as generous and usable without an account.", "quotes": [{"id": 752000784, "item_id": 47000049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000049", "by": "olvy0", "date": "2026-02-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "excerpt": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so. Their Sonar model is Llama running on top of a Cerebras chip, and searches the internet in an incredible speed. Its results are astonishingly good (for a Llama model), although in more niche areas it still makes mistakes, so in those areas I usually double-check its sources or do an extra ddg search myself. Actually I've ne", "context": "", "use_case": "small fast search queries", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20115.3\u2011Codex\u2011Spark"}, {"id": 788346992, "item_id": 49271687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271687", "by": "ljf", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "for now I'll stick to my free Perplexity account", "excerpt": "Very much this - we are firmly at the centralised stage - when I have truly local AI running on my devices, my cost will be the energy they use - if I use open source models. I follow a guy on instagram who is doing this today, with old mobile phones and Raspberry Pi - for now I'll stick to my free Perplexity account, but looking forward to being self-sufficient one day.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok Bot by SpaceXAI"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Declining quality", "summary": "Former fans report that results have steadily gotten worse.", "quotes": [{"id": 792766352, "item_id": 49547897, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547897", "by": "Grisu_FTP", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems like it gets worse and worse instead.", "excerpt": "I got a year of free Perplexity Pro with my Revolut sub. At first I really, really liked it. It felt faster, better, and smarter than (free) ChatGPT. But instead of getting better (or at worst staying at the same level), it seems like it gets worse and worse instead. For a few months now I have it that it randomly switches to another language for like 1\u20132 words (most often Japanese) mid sentence. It feels like it got", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792708976, "item_id": 49544311, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544311", "by": "jwrallie", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time", "excerpt": "More or less the same experience, I used to recommend it to others, and observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time, smooth enough that it took a while for it to register. I am just about to end my free trial, it lasted 12 months for the educational version which does not have any credits for Computer, I just canceled it on the webpage and it says it is going to be canceled at the day my renew", "context": "former user on free educational plan", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792586832, "item_id": 49536677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536677", "by": "Aurornis", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see my results appear in a second, but they\u2019re garbage.", "excerpt": "I used one of the 12-month free Perplexity offers when they were everywhere. It felt slightly useful at first for simple queries where I didn\u2019t want to go through the top 10 Google results manually. If I was looking for a specific recipe I remembered or a help page or user manual it would usually find it quickly. Then they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Unreliable citations", "summary": "Answers and citations can be wrong or not match the cited text, especially in niche areas.", "quotes": [{"id": 792625104, "item_id": 49539069, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539069", "by": "hek2sch", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations", "excerpt": "To be honest perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations. They just look plausible. For anything little bit serious I use nouswise or nblm that sometimes abstain instead of making things up.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A third of Perplexity's citations don't contain the number they're cited for"}, {"id": 792586832, "item_id": 49536677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536677", "by": "Aurornis", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see my results appear in a second, but they\u2019re garbage.", "excerpt": "I used one of the 12-month free Perplexity offers when they were everywhere. It felt slightly useful at first for simple queries where I didn\u2019t want to go through the top 10 Google results manually. If I was looking for a specific recipe I remembered or a help page or user manual it would usually find it quickly. Then they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 752000784, "item_id": 47000049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000049", "by": "olvy0", "date": "2026-02-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "excerpt": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so. Their Sonar model is Llama running on top of a Cerebras chip, and searches the internet in an incredible speed. Its results are astonishingly good (for a Llama model), although in more niche areas it still makes mistakes, so in those areas I usually double-check its sources or do an extra ddg search myself. Actually I've ne", "context": "", "use_case": "small fast search queries", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20115.3\u2011Codex\u2011Spark"}]}, {"label": "Billing and limits", "summary": "Paying users report sharply reduced query limits, billing confusion and refunds denied by AI support.", "quotes": [{"id": 750682464, "item_id": 46917654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46917654", "by": "SignorZ", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off.", "excerpt": "Yes, it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off. An AI bot responds and refuses to refund the unused portion of the subscription. In my jurisdiction (EU), this is completely illegal; I will contact the authorities and request a full refund. I used to get 600 Pro queries per day, now I get 20 per month. Support responds via AI and says the limits have been updated a", "context": "EU paying subscriber", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: 900x downgrade of Perplexity Pro \u2013 anyone else hit?"}, {"id": 792708976, "item_id": 49544311, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544311", "by": "jwrallie", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time", "excerpt": "More or less the same experience, I used to recommend it to others, and observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time, smooth enough that it took a while for it to register. I am just about to end my free trial, it lasted 12 months for the educational version which does not have any credits for Computer, I just canceled it on the webpage and it says it is going to be canceled at the day my renew", "context": "former user on free educational plan", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}]}, {"label": "Model switching", "summary": "Users allege that the model is switched without notice and that long sessions are silently truncated on export.", "quotes": [{"id": 783946032, "item_id": 48996627, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996627", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they are pushing things way too far, with flagrantly, persistently deceptive and sneaky practices.", "excerpt": "I have been 'working' on gathering enough evidence to bypass arbitration barriers and start a class action on this. I have dozens of videos and screenshots and transcripts showing explicit model-selection manipulation in real time, with no notice to the user.[0] I have been documenting this and other deceptive practices since early 2025. Technically, it's false advertising. The Session Export feature is another examp", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search with multiple models", "switched_from": "", "story": "Perplexity Pro limits: the shrinking $20 plan, in 1,024 posts"}, {"id": 750682464, "item_id": 46917654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46917654", "by": "SignorZ", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off.", "excerpt": "Yes, it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off. An AI bot responds and refuses to refund the unused portion of the subscription. In my jurisdiction (EU), this is completely illegal; I will contact the authorities and request a full refund. I used to get 600 Pro queries per day, now I get 20 per month. Support responds via AI and says the limits have been updated a", "context": "EU paying subscriber", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: 900x downgrade of Perplexity Pro \u2013 anyone else hit?"}]}, {"label": "Ads for subscribers", "summary": "One user left after ads appeared even for paying users.", "quotes": [{"id": 744898721, "item_id": 46556170, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556170", "by": "bicepjai", "date": "2026-01-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "until the familiar VC backed pattern showed up: ads, even for paying users", "excerpt": "Previously, my comments on Kagi were about one thing: counting queries felt like a chore, so I stayed away. I did give it a try mainly for the privacy angle. After that, I switched to Perplexity and was happy for a year, until the familiar VC backed pattern showed up: ads, even for paying users. This year I upgraded to Kagi Ultimate, and honestly, it feels like they\u2019ve found the sweet spot. I hesitated at $25 at firs", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux"}]}, {"label": "Cloudflare checks", "summary": "One user is stuck behind persistent Cloudflare checks.", "quotes": [{"id": 755646898, "item_id": 47227931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47227931", "by": "ddxv", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Grok / Perplexity are behind a perpetual CloudFlare check for me", "excerpt": "I recently deleted my ChatGPT and was just looking around for what the other options are. I kinda like fast, but Grok / Perplexity are behind a perpetual CloudFlare check for me. I'm looking for something that doesn't spend forever reasoning out the answer to some basic quick question. It's interesting, as I type that out it makes me wonder why not just go back to the search engine since it has the AI summaries that ", "context": "", "use_case": "quick chat questions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Online LLM / Chat do you use?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "vektormemory", "context": "uses multiple LLMs daily", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48784356", "date": "2026-07-04"}, {"by": "h4kunamata", "context": "De-Google user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498039", "date": "2026-06-11"}], "tags": ["for replacing Google search", "for quick queries", "for comparing models", "pay-per-search API", "for financial data"], "use_cases": ["ai search", "web search", "search and deep research", "web search api", "web search and research", "looking things up"], "compared": [{"slug": "chatgpt", "name": "ChatGPT", "co": 13, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 9, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "gemini", "name": "Gemini", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "google-search", "name": "Google Search", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kagi", "name": "Kagi", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "notebooklm", "name": "NotebookLM", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536375", "title": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296649", "title": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266051", "title": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47227046", "title": "Ask HN: What Online LLM / Chat do you use?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291945", "title": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49963171", "title": "Web Search API", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1, "compare": 2}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"warn": 5}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804700034, "item_id": 50293752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293752", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used perplexity for some time.", "excerpt": "Blaming AI is correct but perhaps not the way you think. I think a lot of people actually use other people's AI tools to do their searches now. Google's attempt to grab that back via their own AI tools is so far not really working. Google is no longer the go to tool for answering questions or doing research. I used perplexity for some time. These days, I have claude and chatgpt. They search on my behalf. Sometimes I ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 799488704, "item_id": 49968044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968044", "by": "apwheele", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "similar to Perplexity, which is $1 per 1000 for fast search", "excerpt": "Put in the todo list to check out. If you cut web search costs even further for flash/fast search (similar to Perplexity, which is $1 per 1000 for fast search) would make it more competitive (at least for my app!)", "context": "", "use_case": "web search API", "switched_from": "", "story": "Web Search API"}, {"id": 792766352, "item_id": 49547897, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49547897", "by": "Grisu_FTP", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems like it gets worse and worse instead.", "excerpt": "I got a year of free Perplexity Pro with my Revolut sub. At first I really, really liked it. It felt faster, better, and smarter than (free) ChatGPT. But instead of getting better (or at worst staying at the same level), it seems like it gets worse and worse instead. For a few months now I have it that it randomly switches to another language for like 1\u20132 words (most often Japanese) mid sentence. It feels like it got", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792708976, "item_id": 49544311, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544311", "by": "jwrallie", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time", "excerpt": "More or less the same experience, I used to recommend it to others, and observed a steady decrease in performance over long periods of time, smooth enough that it took a while for it to register. I am just about to end my free trial, it lasted 12 months for the educational version which does not have any credits for Computer, I just canceled it on the webpage and it says it is going to be canceled at the day my renew", "context": "former user on free educational plan", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792625104, "item_id": 49539069, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539069", "by": "hek2sch", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations", "excerpt": "To be honest perplexity does nothing to make sure it's answer are correct let alone the citations. They just look plausible. For anything little bit serious I use nouswise or nblm that sometimes abstain instead of making things up.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A third of Perplexity's citations don't contain the number they're cited for"}, {"id": 792591344, "item_id": 49536959, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536959", "by": "stranded22", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "So, after paying them upwards of $400-$500 and being a loyal customer, I walked.", "excerpt": "I paid for perplexity pro for 3 years. I genuinely enjoyed using it and felt it was better overall than ChatGPT etc due to the way it showed sources etc. I liked being able to use different models depending on what I was looking for, and the deep research was helpful. I think they probably damaged themselves by going for a land grab of user base through freebies. It meant the users weren\u2019t ever going to convert to pa", "context": "paid Pro subscriber for 3 years", "use_case": "search and deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 792586832, "item_id": 49536677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536677", "by": "Aurornis", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see my results appear in a second, but they\u2019re garbage.", "excerpt": "I used one of the 12-month free Perplexity offers when they were everywhere. It felt slightly useful at first for simple queries where I didn\u2019t want to go through the top 10 Google results manually. If I was looking for a specific recipe I remembered or a help page or user manual it would usually find it quickly. Then they started optimizing for speed of responses over quality of results. I can enter a query and see ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Three sites made 215,128 \u201cbest software\u201d pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"}, {"id": 789644949, "item_id": 49352809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49352809", "by": "NishanStepak", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.", "excerpt": "I feel comfortable using AI. I don't use it for everything. I know it is not accurate for many things. I don't use it for my monthly reports. I use it for specific things like looking up news articles or articles on libraries. I check the news articles to see if they are real. I also use the Comet Browser which has proven to be a pretty good browser. I use ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. I have used it to lo", "context": "", "use_case": "looking things up", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you feel comfortable admitting that you use AI?"}, {"id": 789339044, "item_id": 49333690, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333690", "by": "yoeven", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perplexity is great at financial data", "excerpt": "thanks! 1. yeah, we've optimized significantly for latency, give the API a try and you'll see it's pretty fast. 2. more than you think, we use a wide range of providers internally depending on the context needed. Exa could be great in some for example people search but is pretty bad at getting the latest content of the page, Parallel is better there. Apify is great for getting google ranked pages. Perplexity is great", "context": "", "use_case": "financial data search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: OpenWebSearch \u2013 A router for web search indexes"}, {"id": 788653061, "item_id": 49290816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49290816", "by": "Join_TalkoryAi", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I naturally use several models\u2014GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, etc.", "excerpt": "For me, the biggest pain point was actually having multiple AI subscriptions just to use different models for different things. I\u2019m working on Talkory.ai, so I naturally use several models\u2014GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, etc.\u2014for things like coding, research, content and brainstorming. Individually, each subscription makes sense, but collectively the monthly cost adds up pretty quickly. That\u2019s one of the reaso", "context": "", "use_case": "research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How much money do you spend monthly on subscriptions for AI models?"}, {"id": 788346992, "item_id": 49271687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271687", "by": "ljf", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "for now I'll stick to my free Perplexity account", "excerpt": "Very much this - we are firmly at the centralised stage - when I have truly local AI running on my devices, my cost will be the energy they use - if I use open source models. I follow a guy on instagram who is doing this today, with old mobile phones and Raspberry Pi - for now I'll stick to my free Perplexity account, but looking forward to being self-sufficient one day.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok Bot by SpaceXAI"}, {"id": 783946032, "item_id": 48996627, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996627", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they are pushing things way too far, with flagrantly, persistently deceptive and sneaky practices.", "excerpt": "I have been 'working' on gathering enough evidence to bypass arbitration barriers and start a class action on this. I have dozens of videos and screenshots and transcripts showing explicit model-selection manipulation in real time, with no notice to the user.[0] I have been documenting this and other deceptive practices since early 2025. Technically, it's false advertising. The Session Export feature is another examp", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search with multiple models", "switched_from": "", "story": "Perplexity Pro limits: the shrinking $20 plan, in 1,024 posts"}, {"id": 781200162, "item_id": 48825010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48825010", "by": "wolvoleo", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use perplexity a lot personally", "excerpt": "I have to say the only part of copilot in m365 I really like is cowork. We have a preview version of it and it's great to spar with it and give it recurring tasks to do. Finally something that actually actively helps. But that's billed separately on a token basis and cost really adds up. The other stuff is just not so useful to me. I use it a bit to search for emails and teams chats but that's also cause the search i", "context": "", "use_case": "personal AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption is under 4.5%, only 1% use it weekly"}, {"id": 780549697, "item_id": 48784356, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48784356", "by": "vektormemory", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using three frontier LLMs, Gemini, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Claude Sonnet 5, to both research the problem", "excerpt": "A weekend project about LLM guardrails, copyright, and why proving your code is yours turned out to be a lot more complex than it should be. This is a firsthand look into an experimental weekend project, not legal advice. If any of this matters to your actual business, talk to an actual lawyer in your jurisdiction. I use multiple LLMs daily as idea generators for code, production work, and research. So don\u2019t read the", "context": "uses multiple LLMs daily", "use_case": "research and code generation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Provenance: Proving That Your Code Is Really Yours"}, {"id": 775968624, "item_id": 48498039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498039", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perplexity AI made searching online fun again", "excerpt": "I pardon to disagree with a but!!! As much as I don't like AI, search engines are dead even if you went De-Google like me. I use Perplexity AI as myc new search engine, it is the only one that trully shows you all the sources it use to fetch the information it is showing you allowing you to conter check. Perplexity AI made searching online fun again, be it for code, anything in general, I just use Perplexity AI. The ", "context": "De-Google user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google"}, {"id": 772832675, "item_id": 48302042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48302042", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "some AI like perplexity covers the remaining 1%", "excerpt": "I use a mix of Bing (as Edge Is my daily driver) and duckduckgo, and i have to say I rarely need to use Google. I don't think that's because they are better search engines, but because their usage covers 99% of my queries and some AI like perplexity covers the remaining 1%.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772760962, "item_id": 48297560, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297560", "by": "ctrlkctrls", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "At least Perplexity is different to Google.", "excerpt": "The world seems to be fragmenting, into those that see the value in the latest from Google, and those that resist changes like this. I search for how much oil does my <ICE vehicle> take\" and get the exact answer in a single sentence, or I suppose I could click the links and wade through all the validation for choosing <ICE vehicle> and how often one should change the oil, and which brand of oil that blog is pushing e", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772393634, "item_id": 48274602, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48274602", "by": "dahuangf", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For general: Perplexity.", "excerpt": "For code: Kagi or phind. For general: Perplexity. For privacy: Brave. I use Google only when I need to find a specific Reddit thread now, ironically.", "context": "", "use_case": "general search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 772261040, "item_id": 48266315, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266315", "by": "Scene_Cast2", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries.", "excerpt": "I'm surprised that Perplexity isn't mentioned in the article or on HN. It has replaced Google for all but the most trivial queries. It runs circles around Google for finding anything niche or underspecified. I use it through OpenRouter - I love how the pricing is per search and isn't a subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}, {"id": 767660496, "item_id": 47978781, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47978781", "by": "roscas", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Hum, I will use perplexity to find what is the mistery in here.", "excerpt": "Hum, I will use perplexity to find what is the mistery in here. Remember that chromium is trying to open perplexity.ai and I don't know what triggered it, even if it was something outside of chromium. So far, I cannot blame anyone... yet. update: I also cannot exclude Firefox that I use at the same time and opensnitch caught the request but shows chromium instead of firefox.", "context": "", "use_case": "troubleshooting research", "switched_from": "", "story": "How can perplexity.com persist on the browser without extension"}, {"id": 762481041, "item_id": 47655065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47655065", "by": "mrtksn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Of course OpenAI, Perplexity and others later implemented that properly", "excerpt": "I remember when ChatGPT exploded and Bing had it integrated, the idea was brilliant because unlike ChatGPT you didn't have information cut-off since it can access the web. I was very excited to ditch Google. How did MS actually implemented it though? After a few messages the chat is blocked because MS did not choose to walk the extra mile and maybe compact the context so that their product can be actually usable. Of ", "context": "", "use_case": "AI chat with web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold"}, {"id": 758163329, "item_id": 47385208, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385208", "by": "Blockbanana", "date": "2026-03-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "make something similar to Perplexity but focused on privacy and transparency", "excerpt": "Hi HN! I built PrivAI as a private alternative to AI search tools. The main goal was to make something similar to Perplexity but focused on privacy and transparency. Key features: Fully private AI computation AI-powered PDF research Source verification dropdown AI content detector Completely redesigned UI I\u2019d love feedback from the community on the search results and interface. Happy to answer any questions about how", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "PrivAI \u2013 private AI search that runs locally"}, {"id": 757863140, "item_id": 47366446, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366446", "by": "yamarkov", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "compare", "quote": "each run across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity with search ON and OFF", "excerpt": "VOYGR team here. We built this because we kept running into the same problem: LLMs confidently recommending places that turned out to be closed, fabricated, or in the wrong neighborhood. We wanted to measure how bad it actually is. Setup: 345 prompts across 50+ cities, 5 task types (discovery, place details, navigation, booking, sharing), each run across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity with search ON and OFF.", "context": "", "use_case": "local place recommendations", "switched_from": "", "story": "LLMs ace bar exams, but even the best gets 1 in 12 local queries wrong"}, {"id": 755675057, "item_id": 47229691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229691", "by": "mongrelion", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also have access to Perplexity which is quite decent to be honest", "excerpt": "Through my Kagi subscription I get access to quite a few models [1] but I tend to rely on Qwen3 (fast) for quick questions and Qwen3 (reasoning) when I want a more structured approach, for example, when I am researching a topic. I have tried the same approach with Kimi K2.5 and GLM 5 but I keep going back fo Qwen3. I also have access to Perplexity which is quite decent to be honest, but I prefer to keep everything in", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Online LLM / Chat do you use?"}, {"id": 755646898, "item_id": 47227931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47227931", "by": "ddxv", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Grok / Perplexity are behind a perpetual CloudFlare check for me", "excerpt": "I recently deleted my ChatGPT and was just looking around for what the other options are. I kinda like fast, but Grok / Perplexity are behind a perpetual CloudFlare check for me. I'm looking for something that doesn't spend forever reasoning out the answer to some basic quick question. It's interesting, as I type that out it makes me wonder why not just go back to the search engine since it has the AI summaries that ", "context": "", "use_case": "quick chat questions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Online LLM / Chat do you use?"}, {"id": 752848864, "item_id": 47053054, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47053054", "by": "doomslayer999", "date": "2026-02-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Perplexity and Claude are on the right track but not at all close.", "excerpt": "Great article and exactly why I use AI less and less. I basically find it to be rotting my brain towards the middle of the distribution. It's like all the nuance and critical thinking that actually goes into things gets stripped out. Once a company perfects an agent that essentially performs condensed search and coding boilerplate making, that is probably where LLMs end for me. Perplexity and Claude are on the right ", "context": "", "use_case": "search and coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation"}, {"id": 752000784, "item_id": 47000049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000049", "by": "olvy0", "date": "2026-02-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so.", "excerpt": "I've been using Perplexity for small, fast queries almost exclusively for the last year or so. Their Sonar model is Llama running on top of a Cerebras chip, and searches the internet in an incredible speed. Its results are astonishingly good (for a Llama model), although in more niche areas it still makes mistakes, so in those areas I usually double-check its sources or do an extra ddg search myself. Actually I've ne", "context": "", "use_case": "small fast search queries", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20115.3\u2011Codex\u2011Spark"}, {"id": 750682464, "item_id": 46917654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46917654", "by": "SignorZ", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off.", "excerpt": "Yes, it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off. An AI bot responds and refuses to refund the unused portion of the subscription. In my jurisdiction (EU), this is completely illegal; I will contact the authorities and request a full refund. I used to get 600 Pro queries per day, now I get 20 per month. Support responds via AI and says the limits have been updated a", "context": "EU paying subscriber", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: 900x downgrade of Perplexity Pro \u2013 anyone else hit?"}, {"id": 746901345, "item_id": 46681334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46681334", "by": "Zambyte", "date": "2026-01-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Perplexity often lead me down rabbitholes of trying to beat the LLM into submission", "excerpt": "I use AI (LLMs) all the time, but I use it very intentionally. I don't reach to it for everything. A while ago I was paying for both Kagi Ultimate and Perplexity Premium to see which one fit my needs better. I ended up dropping my Perplexity subscription in favor of Kagi Ultimate, because Perplexity often lead me down rabbitholes of trying to beat the LLM into submission, where dropping to a simple keyword search wou", "context": "", "use_case": "LLM-assisted search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Are You YES AI or No AI?"}, {"id": 745013264, "item_id": 46563329, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46563329", "by": "skeledrew", "date": "2026-01-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "honestly the quality just isn't as good as Perplexity", "excerpt": "I made an interface to a Perplexica instance over Telegram (which I use constantly through the day) a few months ago, but actually haven't used it much as honestly the quality just isn't as good as Perplexity. It does seem the logical next step is to switch to something with more raw agent-like access.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI search", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built a tool to create AI agents that live in iMessage"}, {"id": 744898721, "item_id": 46556170, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556170", "by": "bicepjai", "date": "2026-01-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "until the familiar VC backed pattern showed up: ads, even for paying users", "excerpt": "Previously, my comments on Kagi were about one thing: counting queries felt like a chore, so I stayed away. I did give it a try mainly for the privacy angle. After that, I switched to Perplexity and was happy for a year, until the familiar VC backed pattern showed up: ads, even for paying users. This year I upgraded to Kagi Ultimate, and honestly, it feels like they\u2019ve found the sweet spot. I hesitated at $25 at firs", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux"}, {"id": 741633168, "item_id": 46352073, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352073", "by": "dalmo3", "date": "2025-12-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's still a great source for Perplexity :)", "excerpt": "It's still a great source for Perplexity :)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is Stack Overflow Dead?"}, {"id": 740443329, "item_id": 46277708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46277708", "by": "pcf", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The beauty with this availability is that any model you switch to can read the whole thread", "excerpt": "I use this model in Perplexity Pro (included in Revolut Premium), usually in threads where I alternate between Claude 4.5 Sonnet, GPT-5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, Grok 4.1 and Kimi K2. The beauty with this availability is that any model you switch to can read the whole thread, so it's able to critique and augment the answers from other models before it. I've done this for ages with the various OpenAI models inside ChatGPT, and", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-model threads", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kimi K2 1T model runs on 2 512GB M3 Ultras"}, {"id": 736009696, "item_id": 46000606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46000606", "by": "nsonha", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use perplexity a lot and pretty much exclusively with \"deep research\" on.", "excerpt": "I use perplexity a lot and pretty much exclusively with \"deep research\" on. Is this on the same level? Because Perplexity often take more than a minute, and this is only 20 secs.", "context": "", "use_case": "deep research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi Assistants"}]}