How to Use Perplexity AI: The Beginner’s Guide to AI Search

Google finds web pages. Perplexity answers your questions — with sources. If Perplexity isn’t the right fit, explore the best Perplexity AI alternatives.

That’s the simplest way to describe what Perplexity AI does differently. Instead of returning a list of links to browse, it reads across the web in real time, synthesizes what it finds, and gives you a direct answer with citations you can actually check. For anyone who does research, writes content, or just wants better answers faster, it’s a genuinely different experience from traditional search.

This guide covers everything you need to start using Perplexity effectively: basic search, Focus modes, Spaces, Collections, and the Pro features that make it a serious research tool.

Prerequisites — What You Need Before Starting

• A device with a web browser, or an iPhone/Android for the Perplexity mobile app
• A Perplexity account (free at perplexity.ai — sign up with Google, Apple, or email)
• About 10 minutes to go through the basics

The free plan works fine for getting started. You’ll hit limits on advanced features like Pro Searches and file uploads, but the core search experience is fully available without paying.

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Step 1: Running Your First Search

Go to perplexity.ai and you’ll see a clean search bar in the middle of the screen — simpler than most AI interfaces. This is the Ask Anything box.

Type a question the way you’d actually ask it out loud:

• “What’s the best way to structure a cold email to a potential client?”
• “How does compound interest work, and how do I calculate it for a savings account?”
• “What’s the difference between a 401k and a Roth IRA?”

Hit Enter. Within a few seconds, Perplexity returns:

A direct answer — A well-organized response in paragraph or list format, written clearly.

Numbered citations — Every fact has a small number next to it linked to its source.

Source cards — A panel of the web pages Perplexity actually read to build the answer.

Follow-up suggestions — Clickable questions at the bottom to go deeper.

Related searches — Adjacent queries you might find useful.

Reading the answer

Don’t just skim the text. Check the citations. When Perplexity cites a source with [1], click that number to open the original page. This tells you whether the information is solid or whether Perplexity may have misread the source — something that does happen.

Pro tip: If an answer seems surprising or too convenient, click the source and read the original. Perplexity is good, but research from early 2025 found even the best AI search engines still have error rates around 37%. Verify anything important at the source.

Ask follow-up questions

Below the answer, you’ll see suggested follow-ups. Click any of them, or type your own follow-up question in the box at the bottom. Perplexity remembers the context of your conversation, so follow-ups are specific rather than starting over from scratch. We’ve done a detailed Perplexity vs Google Search comparison if you want to understand the accuracy trade-offs.

Example conversation:

• First query: “What are the main differences between React and Vue.js?”
• Follow-up: “Which one would be better for a small team building a dashboard app?”
• Follow-up: “What are the best learning resources for Vue.js beginners?”

Each answer builds on the previous context, which makes this more useful than isolated Google searches.

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Step 2: Understanding Focus Modes

Focus Modes are one of Perplexity’s most useful — and most underused — features. They let you tell Perplexity where to search, which fundamentally changes what you get back.

You’ll find Focus Modes as icons below the search bar before you run a query, or you can switch modes after getting your initial results.

The available Focus Modes

All (Web) — The default. Searches the open web broadly. Good for general questions.

Academic — Restricts results to scholarly sources, research papers, and academic databases. This is the mode you want when you’re looking for peer-reviewed evidence, not blog posts. Try it for queries like:

• “What does research say about the effectiveness of spaced repetition for language learning?”
• “Recent studies on sleep deprivation and cognitive performance”

YouTube — Searches YouTube content and summarizes what relevant videos contain. Useful when you want to learn from video content but don’t want to watch 10 videos to find one answer:

• “Best techniques for sourdough bread starter maintenance” → returns a summary of what YouTube’s top baking channels recommend

Reddit/Social — Pulls from Reddit and other community discussions. This is your best source for real-world opinions, personal experiences, and unfiltered feedback:

• “What do people actually think of the Toyota RAV4 after 3 years of ownership?”
• “Best neighborhoods to live in Austin for young professionals, according to locals?”

Writing — Switches Perplexity into a writing assistant mode rather than a research mode. Use this when you want to generate or refine text rather than research a topic.

Wolfram|Alpha — Routes your query through Wolfram’s computational knowledge engine. Best for math, unit conversions, physics calculations, and anything that requires precise numerical answers:

• “Convert 180 pounds to kilograms”
• “Derivative of x^3 + 2x^2 – 5x”
• “How many days until July 4, 2026?”

Finance — Pulls from financial databases, SEC filings, annual reports, and market data. Useful for researching companies, earnings, or financial metrics without digging through individual reports.

Practical examples of when to switch modes

What you’re trying to do	Mode to use
Research a medical question	Academic
Find authentic product reviews	Reddit/Social
Learn a skill covered by tutorials	YouTube
Calculate something specific	Wolfram	Alpha
Research a public company	Finance
Write or polish text	Writing
General current events or news	All (Web)

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Step 3: Writing Better Search Queries

The quality of your Perplexity answers depends heavily on how you phrase your questions. A few principles that consistently improve results:

Be specific about context. Vague queries get vague answers.

• Weak: “How do I lose weight?”
• Better: “What are the most evidence-backed diet strategies for someone who’s 40, has a sedentary job, and has around 20 pounds to lose?”

Specify the format you want. Perplexity responds well to formatting instructions:

• “Give me a step-by-step explanation of how HTTPS encryption works, in terms a non-technical person can understand.”
• “List the top 5 pros and cons of living in Denver, Colorado.”
• “Explain the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF in plain English.”

Ask Perplexity to compare things. It handles comparisons well:

• “Compare the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 for professional photography.”
• “What’s the difference between Shopify and WooCommerce for a small e-commerce store?”

Use it for research you’d normally Google multiple times. If you’d normally spend 20 minutes reading 5 different articles on a topic, ask Perplexity to synthesize it for you:

• “Give me a comprehensive overview of the current state of nuclear fusion energy — where we are, what the main challenges are, and which companies are making progress.”

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Step 4: Saving and Organizing Research with Collections

If you use Perplexity more than once, you need to know about Collections — Perplexity’s way of saving and organizing your searches.

What Collections are

A Collection is essentially a folder where you save searches related to a specific topic. Instead of losing a great research thread you did last week, you can save it to a Collection and come back to it anytime.

How to save a search to a Collection

Run a search on any topic.

Look for the Save or Bookmark icon in the top-right area of the response.

Click it and either save to an existing Collection or create a new one.

You can name Collections anything you like — “Home Renovation Research,” “Marketing Strategy,” “Competitive Analysis,” “Personal Finance” — and they’re all accessible from the left sidebar when you’re logged in.

Why this matters

Without Collections, Perplexity’s history is just a chronological list of searches. Collections let you group related searches by project or topic, making it much easier to pick up where you left off on a research task that spans multiple sessions.

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Step 5: Using Spaces for Focused or Collaborative Research

Spaces are Perplexity’s more powerful organizational feature, especially valuable for Pro users. Think of a Space as a dedicated research environment for a specific project, with its own settings, custom instructions, and (on Pro) the ability to invite collaborators.

Creating a Space

In the left sidebar, look for Spaces and click New Space.

Name your Space (e.g., “Q2 Marketing Campaign Research” or “Investment Research”).

Optionally add a description and custom instructions that tell Perplexity how to respond within this Space.

Custom instructions in Spaces

This is where Spaces get powerful. You can set standing instructions that apply to every query you run inside that Space. Examples:

• “When answering questions in this Space, focus on data from peer-reviewed academic sources. Always note the date of any study cited.”
• “Responses should be formatted as executive summaries — concise, with the most important information first. Assume the reader has business context but not technical expertise.”
• “This Space is for competitive research on SaaS CRM tools. When comparing products, always include pricing, key features, and user reviews.”

These instructions save you from having to re-explain your context with every new query.

Scheduling tasks in Spaces

A newer Perplexity feature lets you schedule recurring searches inside a Space. For example, you could set up a daily search that runs every morning and saves the results — “What are the top AI news stories from the last 24 hours?” — so your Space automatically stays updated without you having to run the query manually.

Collaboration (Pro feature)

With a Pro plan, you can invite team members to a Space. Everyone sees the same searches and results, can add their own queries, and builds a shared research library. This makes Spaces genuinely useful for marketing teams doing competitive research, product teams tracking the market, or researchers collaborating on a project.

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Step 6: Pro Features — What’s Unlocked at $20/Month

The free plan covers basic search well. Pro unlocks features that make Perplexity a more serious research tool.

Pro Search (unlimited)

The free plan limits you to a small number of Pro Searches per day. Pro Search is a more thorough research mode that runs multiple rounds of searching, follows threads of information across several sources, and synthesizes a more complete answer. For any serious research question — not just “what is X” but “how do X and Y compare across these dimensions” — Pro Search is noticeably better.

With a Pro plan, this is unlimited.

File uploads

Pro users can upload PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, and other files directly into Perplexity and ask questions about them. This is useful for:

• “Here’s a 50-page research report. Summarize the key findings in 5 bullet points.”
• “I’ve uploaded a contract. What are the termination conditions?”
• “Analyze this spreadsheet and tell me which product category has the highest profit margin.”

The file context is combined with Perplexity’s web search, so you can ask questions that require both your uploaded document and current information.

Advanced model access

Free users get a default AI model. Pro users can choose from several advanced models including GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Gemini — selecting whichever performs best for a particular type of query. Some users switch to Claude for nuanced writing tasks, Gemini for code-related questions, and Perplexity’s own models for straightforward research.

Image and video generation

Pro users get access to image generation (currently powered by FLUX and DALL-E models) and video generation directly inside Perplexity. Useful for quickly generating visual assets without leaving your research context.

Deep Research (multi-step reports)

Perplexity’s Deep Research mode takes a complex question and conducts an extended research process — running multiple searches, reading through source material, and synthesizing a full structured report with citations. The output is much longer and more detailed than a standard Pro Search.

This is useful when you need something like: “Write a comprehensive competitive analysis of the top 5 email marketing platforms, covering features, pricing, ideal use cases, and recent user feedback.”

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Tips and Tricks

Start with a broad question, then narrow down with follow-ups. Running “explain protein synthesis” and then “walk me through transcription vs translation specifically” is more effective than trying to write one very specific initial query.

Use Perplexity for learning, not just facts. Ask it to explain concepts step by step: “Explain how mortgage amortization works as if I’ve never taken out a loan before.”

When you find a great answer, save it immediately. Perplexity’s search history is available when you’re logged in, but using Collections ensures you can find important research later even as your history grows.

Switch to Academic mode for health questions. General health information from a web search can be noisy. Academic mode surfaces actual research studies, which gives you better signal on what the evidence actually says (with the caveat that you should always confirm with a doctor for personal medical decisions).

Use the mobile app for on-the-go research. The Perplexity iOS and Android apps are polished and full-featured. When a question comes up in a meeting or conversation, it’s faster than any search engine for getting a researched answer quickly.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Treating Perplexity’s answers as ground truth without checking sources
Perplexity is excellent at synthesis, but it does make mistakes. A fact that’s presented confidently with a citation might be misrepresented when you read the actual source. For anything you plan to share, publish, or act on, click through to the sources.

2. Using the wrong Focus Mode
Running a query about a research paper with the default Web mode instead of Academic mode means you’ll get blog summaries of research instead of the actual research. Matching the mode to your intent saves time.

3. Ignoring the follow-up suggestions
The clickable follow-up questions at the bottom of each answer are often exactly where you should go next. They’re generated based on what Perplexity thinks you’re actually trying to understand, and they frequently lead somewhere more useful than you’d think to go on your own.

4. Using it for real-time events without checking the date on sources
Perplexity searches the web in real time, but sources have publish dates. For rapidly changing topics like stock prices, political news, or product releases, check when the source was published. A “current” answer might be pulling from an article that’s three months old.

5. Not using Spaces for ongoing research projects
If you’re doing research on a topic over several days or weeks — planning a move, evaluating software tools, doing competitor analysis — set up a Space on day one. Coming back to an organized Space is dramatically more efficient than scrolling through your search history trying to find that great thread from three days ago.

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Pricing — How Much Does Perplexity Cost?

Plan	Price	What You Get
Free	$0	Basic search, limited Pro Searches per day, limited file uploads
Pro	$20/month ($200/year)	Unlimited Pro Searches, advanced models, unlimited file uploads, Deep Research, image/video generation, Spaces with custom instructions
Max	$200/month	Everything in Pro + unlimited Labs access, Model Council, priority access, full feature suite
Enterprise Pro	$40/seat/month	Team features, admin controls, SSO, shared Spaces, audit logs
Enterprise Max	$325/seat/month	Highest-tier enterprise + all Max features

For most people, the choice is between Free and Pro. The free plan is genuinely useful for occasional research. Pro at $20/month ($200/year) is worth it if you use Perplexity for work, do regular research, or want the ability to analyze uploaded documents.

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FAQ

Is Perplexity AI better than Google?
For direct questions that need a synthesized answer with sources, Perplexity is often faster and more useful. For finding specific web pages, checking recent news, or local search results, Google still has advantages. Most power users use both — Perplexity for research questions, Google for everything else.

Does Perplexity always give up-to-date information?
It searches the live web, so yes — it has access to current information. But the freshness depends on whether the sources it finds have been updated recently. For fast-moving topics, check the publish dates on the cited sources.

Can I use Perplexity without creating an account?
You can run searches without an account, but you won’t be able to save searches, use Collections, or access Spaces. Most features that make it useful long-term require logging in.

How is Perplexity different from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT (without web browsing enabled) works from training data with a knowledge cutoff date. Perplexity searches the live web with every query and always cites its sources. For research tasks where you need current information with verifiable sources, Perplexity has a clear advantage. ChatGPT is generally stronger for creative writing, coding, and extended conversation.

Is the AI-generated answer always accurate?
No — and Perplexity itself doesn’t claim otherwise. The citations help a lot, but the AI can misinterpret sources or draw incorrect conclusions. Treat answers as a starting point, not a final source. Always verify critical facts.

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What to Try Next

• Perplexity API — If you’re a developer, Perplexity offers API access to integrate its search into your own applications. The Search API starts at $5 per 1,000 requests.
• Model Council (Max feature) — Run your query through three different AI models simultaneously and get a synthesized answer that shows where they agree and disagree. Useful for complex questions where you want maximum confidence.
• Compare Perplexity vs ChatGPT — Our comparison of Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Claude walks through how they differ for specific use cases.
• Explore Labs — Perplexity Labs lets you build dashboards, documents, and slides directly from your research. Pro users get access, Max users get unlimited use.

Start with a few searches on topics you already know well — this helps you calibrate how accurate Perplexity’s answers are and understand where to dig deeper. Once you trust your sense of its reliability, it becomes a significantly faster research companion than anything else available.

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