Perplexity Guide 2026: How to Use It, and Free vs Pro vs Max Explained

Perplexity is an AI answer engine that searches the web in real time and returns answers with inline source links, and as of September 2026 its personal plans are Free, Pro at $20 a month, and Max at $200 a month. The Free plan gives practically unlimited basic searches, but multi-step Pro Searches are capped at 3 per day and Research at 1 per month. The key to reading the current plans is credits rather than search counts: Computer, the agent that builds files and apps and runs multi-step work, consumes credits, while ordinary searches do not. ASAP used only Perplexity's official pricing page and Help Center to sort out what is free and where the costs start.

What is Perplexity: search that answers, Computer that works

Perplexity is an AI search service run by Perplexity AI, Inc., built around the idea that every answer carries inline citations so each claim can be checked against its source. You type a question, it searches the web, and it summarizes an answer with a model suited to the task. According to the Help Center model table dated September 4, 2026, Pro users can pick Sonar 2, GPT-5.6 Terra, Gemini 3.7 Flash, Claude Sonnet 5, Grok 4.6, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and Nemotron 3 Ultra, and Max adds GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.

Today's Perplexity is best read as two layers: search that answers questions, and an agent called Computer. The Help Center puts it plainly: "Perplexity answers your questions. Computer does your work." Computer moves across the web, your files and connected apps such as Gmail, Slack and Notion to build reports, slides and simple web apps, and it can run scheduled tasks. That is where credits get spent.

Perplexity Free vs Pro vs Max: price and limits compared

Perplexity's personal plans as of September 2026 are Free, Pro ($20 a month or $200 a year) and Max ($200 a month or $2,000 a year), and the Korean pricing page lists these dollar prices with VAT included. Verified students and educators can use Education Pro for $10 a month through SheerID.

Item	Free	Pro	Max
Price	$0	$20/month or $200/year	$200/month or $2,000/year
Pro Searches	3 per day	Weekly limits (average use)	Weekly limits (advanced use)
Research	1 per month	Monthly limits (average use)	Monthly limits (advanced use)
Manual model choice in Search	No (Best picks automatically)	8 models	10 models, Model Council
Image generation	No	Yes	Yes
File and app creation	No	Monthly limits	Extended limits
Comet Assistant queries	No	Monthly limits	Extended limits
Computer credits	None	No monthly allocation, 4,000 bonus (30 days)	10,000 per month, 35,000 bonus (30 days)

The notable detail is that Pro and Max limits are described only as "average use" and "advanced use," not as numbers. Hard numbers appear only on the business plans: Enterprise Pro lists 400 Pro Searches per week and 50 Research queries per month. Credits convert at 100 credits per $1, and a light Computer task such as a summary or a quick research thread costs 100 to 350 credits. The 4,000 Pro bonus credits are therefore worth $40, or roughly 11 to 40 light tasks.

How to use Perplexity: 5 steps by feature

The best way to use Perplexity is to step up the mode as the question gets heavier, and as of September 2026 the Help Center covers five features: Search, Deep Research, file and app creation, Projects and Comet.

1. Start with Search (Ask). Type a question on the home page and the default Best option picks a suitable model for each query. Best has no quota limit, and you can click the numbered citations to check the original sources. Paid users can switch models in the same search box.
2. Hand deeper questions to Research. Choose Research in the mode selector and it runs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources and writes a report. Most tasks finish in under 3 minutes, and you can export the result to PDF or a document or turn it into a Perplexity Page. You cannot pick the model in this mode.
3. Use Create files and apps when you need a deliverable. The current Help Center feature list has no product called Labs; reports, spreadsheets, decks and simple web apps are handled by the "Create files and apps" mode. Supported formats are DOCX and PDF documents, XLSX, PPTX and HTML, on Pro and above.
4. Group recurring work in Projects. Projects, whose Help Center URL still says "spaces," is a workspace that keeps search sessions, Computer tasks, files and instructions in one place. Instructions can run up to 8,000 characters, and Pro and Max users can invite up to 5 people.
5. Install Comet to work inside the browser. Comet is a Chromium-based browser for Windows and Mac that supports most Chrome extensions. It has an Ask button for the open page and a Summarize button; the assistant's Search mode uses no credits, while Work mode runs Computer and consumes credits.

Is the SKT free Perplexity Pro offer still available?

SK Telecom's one-year free Perplexity Pro offer is no longer available, because it was a limited 2024 promotion that the SK Telecom Newsroom now marks as an ended event. SK Telecom announced its partnership with Perplexity in September 2024 and offered SKT customers Pro, valued at about 290,000 won, free for one year, with applications closing on October 31 that year.

As of September 2026, Perplexity's Help Center article on partner promotions names Airtel, Bouygues Telecom and Vivo as examples of carrier offers and does not mention any Korean carrier, so no current Korean telecom partnership is confirmed on official pages. Partner promotions share common terms: a credit or debit card is required, the plan auto-renews at the standard price when the free period ends, and discount codes can be redeemed only on the web.

Perplexity vs ChatGPT search: when to use which

Perplexity is the better fit for research where you check facts against sources, while ChatGPT is the better fit for writing, coding and image work carried through one conversation. Putting the two official pricing pages side by side as of September 2026 makes the difference clear.

Criterion	Perplexity	ChatGPT
Core identity	Answer engine with inline citations on every answer	General-purpose assistant where search is one feature
Free research features	3 Pro Searches per day, 1 Research per month	Limited deep research
Models	Models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI and others	OpenAI models
First paid plan	Pro, $20/month	Go ₩13,000/month, Plus ₩29,000/month
Top personal plan	Max, $200/month	Pro from ₩159,000/month
Best-fit work	Source checking, market and competitor research, news roundups	Drafting, coding, image generation, long conversations

The deciding question is how you verify an answer. Perplexity attaches a source number to each sentence and lets one subscription send the same question to models from several companies. ChatGPT is stronger at chaining memory, projects, image generation and coding tools into one flow. If research is the goal, start with free Perplexity; if producing deliverables is the goal, look at ChatGPT's plans first.

What Perplexity Pro's $20 a month buys now

Perplexity Pro's $20 a month now buys advanced model choice and research limits rather than search counts, while the cost of handing work to Computer is billed separately in credits. Pro has no monthly credit allocation, so once the 4,000 bonus credits expire after 30 days, Computer tasks continue only if you buy credits.

That structure splits users into two groups. For people who mostly search and run Research, Pro is still a flat subscription: searches consume no credits, and auto-refill is off by default, so no extra charge happens unless you turn it on. For people who want Computer to build reports and run scheduled tasks, it works more like metered billing. Max's 10,000 monthly credits equal $100, and Perplexity's own examples put a heavy task at 875 to 2,275 credits and a large project at 2,400 to 9,800 credits, so a few heavy tasks can use up a month. Max accounts carry a default monthly spending cap of $200 that can be raised to $5,000.

One clause matters for Korean users in particular. Perplexity states that users in South Korea and Brazil can get a refund of unused credits within 7 days of purchase, so the sensible first purchase is a small one, checked against real usage within that window.

Limits and caveats when using Perplexity

Perplexity's biggest limitation is that paid-plan limits are not published as numbers, and the September 2026 Help Center also notes that access to advanced models can be limited during weeks of heavy usage. Even after paying for Pro, there is no way to calculate in advance how many Pro Searches a week you get.

Official documents also disagree on model names. The Korean pricing page promotes GPT-6 Sol, Gemini 3.8 Flash and Grok 4.7, while the Help Center model table dated September 4 lists GPT-5.6 Terra, Gemini 3.7 Flash and Grok 4.6. The Help Center says the in-app model selector is the source of truth, so if a specific model is your reason to pay, confirm it in the selector.

Citations do not guarantee correctness either. Whether a cited document actually supports the claim is something you only learn by clicking through. In Comet, asking a question with Work mode on consumes credits even when it looks like a search. Before paying, use free Best searches and the monthly Research query, identify whether your bottleneck is models, volume or deliverables, and choose the plan from there.

Sources: Perplexity Pro pricing (Perplexity) · Which Perplexity Subscription Plan is right for you? (Perplexity Help Center) · How Credits Work on Perplexity (Perplexity Help Center) · What advanced AI models are included in my subscription? (Perplexity Help Center) · What is Computer? (Perplexity Help Center) · What is Research mode? (Perplexity Help Center) · Creating assets with Perplexity: Overview (Perplexity Help Center) · What are Projects? (Perplexity Help Center) · Getting Started with Comet (Perplexity Help Center) · Partner Promotions and Referral Programs (Perplexity Help Center) · Getting the most out of Perplexity Pro as an SKT customer (SK Telecom Newsroom) · ChatGPT pricing (OpenAI)