Start with AI search products (fast UX)
Perplexity is the right choice when your application needs real-time web search grounding — providing answers that cite current sources rather than training data with a knowledge cutoff. It's purpose-built for research, competitive intelligence, and use cases where users need verifiable, up-to-date information. For internal knowledge base queries or tasks that don't require live web data, a standard RAG pipeline with any LLM is typically more cost-effective and controllable.
- Recommendation: Perplexity
Recommended starting points
Based on your constraints, these products typically fit best. Read each decision brief to confirm pricing behavior and limits match your reality.
Perplexity
AI search product focused on answers with citations and browsing, often compared to raw model APIs when the real decision is search UX versus custom orchestration control.
Why this recommendation
Perplexity is the right choice when your application needs real-time web search grounding — providing answers that cite current sources rather than training data with a knowledge cutoff. It's purpose-built for research, competitive intelligence, and use cases where users need verifiable, up-to-date information. For internal knowledge base queries or tasks that don't require live web data, a standard RAG pipeline with any LLM is typically more cost-effective and controllable.