Perplexity Pricing: Free vs Pro vs Max and ChatGPT Search

Perplexity is an AI search service that summarizes web results and answers your question with cited sources. Individual plans come in three tiers: Free at $0, Pro at $20 per month and Max at $200 per month (based on official documents as of late September 2026). ChatGPT also lets you use web search on its free plan, so the difference between the two is not whether search exists. It is how an answer starts and what the limits are on each plan.

Perplexity prices are listed on the Perplexity pricing page, and the features in each plan are in the subscription plan help article. Neither document shows an announcement date or an effective date for prices. They describe the plans currently on sale, so open them once more before you pay.

Perplexity Free, Pro and Max differ in model choice and research limits

The Free plan gives you basic search with cited sources. Pro widens model choice and deep research features. Max is a top tier with higher limits on top of Pro.

Plan	Price	Differences listed in official documents
Free (Standard)	$0	Basic search with cited sources, very few Pro Searches, limited file uploads. No advanced models or image generation (subscription plan help). The pricing page says usage is limited (pricing page)
Pro	$20 per month	10x more sources per answer, a model choice for each question, expanded Research, more file and photo uploads, image generation (Pro help)
Max	$200 per month, $2,000 per year (web checkout only)	Everything in Pro, plus access to top-tier models, higher limits for file and app creation, and priority support (Max help). 10,000 credits every month (credits help)
Enterprise Pro	From $40 per month per seat	Pro features plus team collaboration, admin controls, and security terms under which your data is not used for training (subscription plan help)

Monthly prices for individual plans come from the pricing page. The yearly Max price comes from the Max help article. Enterprise Pro comes from the subscription plan help. All prices are in US dollars, and tax is set on the checkout screen.

The line between Free and Pro is how often you run deep research. The Pro help article says you can run many Pro Searches per day on Pro. Pro Search is a search that reasons through several steps to find material. On the Free plan, Pro Search is very limited. The limit on basic search for Free is worded differently across documents. The help article says you can use basic search almost without limit, while the pricing page says usage is limited. If you only ask short questions and check sources, start with Free. Choose Pro when you keep hitting the limit in the middle of research.

The Pro help article lists GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Gemini 3.1 Pro as example models. The model list changes often, so check the model picker in the app before you pay. Max is for people who run Computer (a feature where AI carries out multi-step tasks for you) for long sessions every day. It also suits those who need higher limits for Deep Research (a feature that investigates a complex topic in several steps and writes a report) and file creation. The pricing page also describes Max as a higher tier with larger limits than Pro for Deep Research, file creation and uploads.

How to use Perplexity: from question to source check

When you ask a question, Perplexity searches the web, summarizes what it finds, and adds citations that show where each claim came from. The pricing page says every answer comes with inline citations like these.

1. Write your question in one sentence with conditions such as industry, budget and period. For example: "What is the order for setting bids on Naver search ads (Naver is Korea's largest search engine) for an online store with a monthly budget of 3 million KRW?"
2. Click a citation in the answer to open the original page. First check whether it is an official document or a personal blog, and whether the date is recent.
3. Ask about missing parts in the same conversation. Add conditions and ask again, such as "only 2026 sources" or "official help articles only".
4. For questions that need several sources combined, use Pro Search or Research. On the Free plan, the number of Pro Searches is very limited.

A cited source does not guarantee the content is correct. Before you use any sentence with a price, date or figure, check that the same number appears in the original. If the original contains the same content when you open the citation, the check has passed.

Perplexity and ChatGPT search compared

The OpenAI help article says ChatGPT search is available on the Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans. Answers that use search include citations, and a Sources button shows the list of sources. So showing sources is not what separates the two services.

The difference is the starting point. Perplexity starts from search whenever you ask a question. ChatGPT works as a conversation, and search is added automatically when it needs up-to-date information. To turn on search yourself in ChatGPT, choose Search in the tools view of the chat window, or type / in the input box and select Search.

Item	Perplexity	ChatGPT
Where an answer starts	Starts from search for every question	Conversation by default, search when needed
Source display	Citations inside the answer	Citations inside the answer and a Sources button
Search for free	Yes, Pro Search is very limited	Yes, on the Free plan
$20 per month plan	Pro at $20 per month	Plus at $20 per month
Higher tier	Max at $200 per month	Pro at $100, $200 or $500 per month

ChatGPT prices come from the ChatGPT pricing page. The usage limits of the two companies use different units, so they are not in the table. We cover all ChatGPT plans separately in ChatGPT plan prices and limits compared (in Korean).

Collect research material with Perplexity projects

If you research the same topic many times, you can gather the work in a Perplexity project (formerly called Spaces). The project help article describes a project as a shareable workspace that keeps search conversations, Computer tasks, files and custom instructions in one place.

After you create a project, write the research goal and the answer format you want in the custom instructions, then upload the files to reference. You then do not need to explain the same instructions and files again for each question you ask inside that project. After setup, ask a question in the project and check that the answer follows the format in your instructions and that the citations include the files you uploaded.

Check these points before you pay for Perplexity

Credits cause the most confusion. According to the credits help article, credits are used only for Computer tasks, and 100 credits equal $1. The same document says individual Pro gives a one-time 4,000 credits at sign-up that expire after 30 days, and the 10,000 monthly credits belong to Max.

• Assuming Pro includes monthly credits. Individual Pro has no monthly grant. If you use Computer often, you need to buy credits separately or consider Max once the sign-up bonus expires.
• Paying for Pro without trying Free for a few days. It is not too late to decide after you see whether you actually hit the limits.

The local currency amount for the dollar price and any VAT are fixed on the checkout screen. After you pay, you can see your credit balance on the account usage screen (perplexity.ai/account/usage).

Frequently asked questions

Are you charged automatically when Perplexity credits run out

According to the credits help article, auto-reload is off by default, so you are not charged until you turn it on yourself. When it is on, an extra purchase is made when your balance falls below 500 credits on Pro or 2,500 credits on Max.

How to get your site into Perplexity answers

The bot guide recommends allowing PerplexityBot, which surfaces sites in search results, in robots.txt. A change can take up to 24 hours to take effect. To set up other AI crawlers such as ChatGPT and Claude together, see how to allow or block AI search optimization crawlers.

Can you use ChatGPT search without logging in

The OpenAI help article says people who are not logged in can also use web search. Search still follows the usage limits of the plan.

Prices and limits can change, so open the Perplexity pricing page once more before you pay. The images are explanatory illustrations, not real product screens.