Perplexity’s $200-a-month ‘AI’ Comet browser is now free | usagoldmines.com

Would you like a browser that browses the web for you? Presumably excluding malware or other nasty stuff that’s been a concern for decades? Then Perplexity’s Comet “AI” browser might be for you…though the $200-a-month price tag for the company’s “Max” plan might not. But now it’s free, with some big limits.

The Comet browser was always intended to be a free competitor to Chrome and other browsers, though it started out locked behind that massive “AI” paywall. (In fact, Perplexity is so committed to the browser bit that it briefly entertained buying Chrome from Google, before the U.S. government decided that antitrust laws are more like guidelines.)

As of today it’s free for anyone to use, along with its LLM-powered Sidecar feature, according to TechCrunch. Though the download site still indicates you either need a subscription or an invitation to use it, I was able to download and install it without logging in.

But in order to get the full powers of the browser, you’ll still need that $200-a-month subscription. Without it you’re rate-limited for its various tools, including text generation, shopping, and even logging in and “browsing” using your identity. Just be careful — like many LLM tools it has some rather glaring security issues.

Chris Hoffman tried out Comet in an extended test, and found it interesting but pretty barebones once you get beyond the “agentic AI” features. “Comet doesn’t feel designed to be your day-to-day browser—as it is right now, it’s more of a flashy demo,” he says.