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Perplexity Debuts Comet, Its First AI-Powered Browser Posted on : Jul 10 - 2025
Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Browser ‘Comet’ to Take on Google Search
Perplexity on Wednesday introduced its first AI-powered web browser, Comet, marking the startup’s boldest step yet to challenge Google Search as the go-to destination for finding information online.
At launch, Comet is limited to subscribers of Perplexity’s $200-per-month Max plan and a small group of waitlist invitees. Its standout feature is Perplexity’s AI search engine, pre-installed and set as the default — keeping the company’s core product, AI-generated summaries of search results, front and center.
Comet also debuts Comet Assistant, a new AI agent built into the browser. The assistant can summarize emails and calendar events, manage tabs, and help navigate web pages. Users can open a side panel that lets the agent “see” the current webpage and answer questions in context.
While Perplexity has rolled out several tools recently, none carries quite the same weight as Comet. CEO Aravind Srinivas has heavily promoted its launch, framing the browser as key to Perplexity’s fight against Google. By creating its own browser, Perplexity hopes to bypass Google Chrome — the world’s most popular browser — and build a direct relationship with users. Google, meanwhile, appears to see the same trend, adding AI features to Chrome and launching its own AI-powered search mode.
Earlier this year, Srinivas described Comet as the foundation of an “operating system with which you can do almost everything,” and suggested becoming users’ default browser would unlock “infinite retention.” Perplexity says it handled 780 million queries in May 2025, with search volume growing more than 20% month-over-month.
Yet Comet enters a crowded market. Google Chrome and Apple Safari still dominate, and The Browser Company just launched its own AI-powered browser, Dia. OpenAI is also reportedly exploring a browser of its own, having hired several original Chrome engineers.
Hands-On: Where Comet Shines — and Stumbles
In early testing, Comet Assistant impressed with simple tasks. The AI agent could answer questions about whatever I was viewing, whether it was a social media post, YouTube video, or Google Doc. This eliminates the need to copy, paste, or open a separate AI chat window, which could streamline workflows for millions.
Granting Comet Assistant broader access unlocks more features, like summarizing emails and scanning calendar events to suggest departure times and transit options. But it also means giving Perplexity significant permissions — including viewing your screen, sending emails, and adding calendar events — which may give some users pause.
For more complex tasks, the assistant still struggles. When asked to find and book an affordable long-term parking spot at San Francisco Airport, it initially returned decent options, but then hallucinated wrong dates and failed to recover when prompted to fix them. Similar issues have surfaced in other AI agents, highlighting an industry-wide challenge with reliability and accuracy.
The Road Ahead
Despite its flaws, Comet’s integration of AI search and an always-on browser assistant could help Perplexity carve out a niche. Convincing users to abandon Chrome or Safari, however, may prove even harder than getting them to swap Google Search for an AI alternative.
As AI-powered browsing gains momentum, Perplexity is betting that direct access to users — rather than living inside another company’s browser — is the key to lasting relevance. Whether Comet can deliver on that promise will likely define the company’s next chapter.