Perplexity AI to Introduce Native Mac App With AI-Powered Search, Available for Pre-Order

Perplexity, the company behind the eponymous artificial intelligence (AI) search platform, is launching a native Mac app this month. A landing page of the app has appeared on the Mac App Store, detailing the launch date and all the features users will get to experience with the app. The AI firm is also letting users subscribe to Perplexity Pro, the paid subscription tier of the app, via iTunes. With this move, the company will be aiming to compete with OpenAI which launched a native ChatGPT app for Mac devices earlier this year.

Perplexity Mac App

As per the listing on the Mac App Store, Perplexity will launch the macOS app on October 15. However, the company has made the app available for pre-order. Pre-ordering is similar to the pre-installing process on Android and once the app becomes available, it will automatically install on the user's device as long as it is connected to the Internet.

With the Perplexity app for Mac, users will get all the features seen on the web, Android, and iOS versions of the platform. Users can write a search query as a prompt and have the AI scour the web to find the information. It presents the information in bullet points and paragraph layouts and adds citations for the information to let users dive deeper into the topic or verify the authenticity of the information. Users can also ask follow-up questions and the chatbot can understand the context and answer accordingly. Additionally, a curated Discover page will let users find new topics to learn about.

Earlier this year, the AI firm introduced a Pro Search feature that uses an advanced inference to provide a deeper analysis of a search term. Users can use it to look up niche topics or those topics that require more expertise. This feature will also be available with the Mac app. Notably, on the free tier, users only get five free searches every four hours.

As per the landing page, the app's size is 46.8MB and supports macOS 13 or later. While the app is free to download and use, there is a Perplexity Pro subscription tier. The monthly subscription offers more than 300 Pro Search uses per day, a free upgrade to the latest AI models, as well as early access to new features. It is priced at Rs. 1,950 a month. Mac users can subscribe to Perplexity Pro via iTunes.