There is a question that more and more people in Spain and Latin America ask before opening Google: «Should I ask the AI directly?»
And when they do, one of the tools they use the most is Perplexity. Not because it is the most well-known, but because it does something that Google does not do: it gives you an answer, not ten links.
In this article, we explain what Perplexity is, how it works, how it differs from ChatGPT and Google, and why your brand should pay attention to what it says about you.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine. It was founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, engineers with experience at OpenAI, DeepMind, and Google, and since then it has grown at an unusual speed in the AI world.
Its proposition is simple but powerful: instead of showing you a list of web pages for you to search for the answer, Perplexity reads those sources for you, synthesizes the information, and delivers a direct answer with numbered references at the bottom.
Think of it this way: it’s like having an assistant who searches the internet, reads the relevant articles, and summarizes the most important points, indicating exactly where each piece of information came from.
Perplexity is not a chatbot. It is a response engine: it receives your question, searches the internet in real-time, synthesizes the information, and delivers a verifiable answer.
How does Perplexity work?
When you ask Perplexity a question, the process has three steps that occur in seconds:
- Real-time search: Perplexity does not rely solely on its trained knowledge like ChatGPT. It actively searches the internet to find updated information about your query.
- LLM synthesis: it uses state-of-the-art language models, including its own models Sonar, GPT-5, and Claude, to process the sources found and generate a coherent response.
- Source citation: each statement in the response is accompanied by a number that corresponds to a real source that you can open with a click to verify the information.
What sets Perplexity apart from most AI models is: transparency. It not only gives you an answer but also shows you where it comes from.
What is Perplexity used for?
Perplexity has very specific uses that make it especially useful for certain profiles:
For research and work
If you need updated information with verifiable backing: market data, regulations, recent news, product comparisons, Perplexity is more reliable than ChatGPT because it searched the internet right now, not six months ago when the model was trained.
For students
The Academic mode of Perplexity prioritizes verifiable academic sources: papers, journals, research repositories. For citing sources in papers, it is a much more robust tool than a generic chatbot.
For professionals who need quick answers
Perplexity collapses the process of opening five tabs, reading introductions, and comparing information into one response. For work queries where time matters, the savings are real.
For anyone who wants to verify information
Since each piece of data comes with its source, you can click and verify in seconds. It is one of the few AI tools where transparency is built into the design.
Perplexity vs Google vs ChatGPT: What’s the difference?
| Aspect | ChatGPT | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it returns | List of links | Drafted response | Drafted response with sources |
| Real-time search | Yes | With browsing enabled | Yes, always |
| Cite sources | Yes (links) | Sometimes | Always, numbered |
| Works in Spanish | Yes | Yes | Yes, automatic detection |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes (limited) | Yes |
The most important difference to understand is this: Google shows you where the information is, ChatGPT generates it from its training, Perplexity searches for it in real-time and synthesizes it with verifiable sources.
What numbers does Perplexity have in 2026?
To understand why Perplexity matters, the data speaks for itself:
- +30 million monthly active users, more than double compared to early 2025.
- 780 million queries processed just in May 2025, with over 20% month-over-month growth.
- $500 million in annualized ARR in March 2026, a 5× growth in one year.
- Valuation of $20-22 billion backed by SoftBank, Bezos, and others.
- 80+ million downloads of the app on iOS and Android.
- Available in +46 languages and over 230 countries, with no restrictions in LATAM.
In February 2026, Perplexity made a significant decision: it completely removed ads and switched to a 100% subscription model. The stated reason was to preserve user trust in the neutrality of responses. Revenue skyrocketed the following month.
Perplexity’s plans: How much do they cost?
| Plan | Price | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited searches with sources, no credit card required |
| Pro | $20/month | Access to GPT-5, Claude, Deep Research, Model Council, file uploads |
| Enterprise | To be consulted | SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, SSO, internal repository search |
Note: The free plan is sufficient for most everyday uses. The Pro is worth it if you need Deep Research, the feature that launches autonomous research in 3 to 5 minutes consulting dozens of sources, or access to multiple cutting-edge models simultaneously.
Perplexity and your brand: the connection that matters
So far we’ve talked about Perplexity as a user, but there’s another dimension that matters if you have a business: Perplexity is one of the AIs that decides which brands it recommends when someone asks a question about your industry.
When someone in Montevideo asks Perplexity «What is the best accounting firm for freelancers in Uruguay?», the tool does not improvise.
It searches for sources, evaluates authority, and generates a response with specific brands. Some appear. Most do not.
And unlike Google, where you can see how your site ranks, in Perplexity there is no public ranking. If you do not actively measure whether your brand appears in the relevant answers in your industry, you simply do not know.
Perplexity is already answering questions about your category every day. The real question is whether your brand is part of that answer or if you are giving ground to your competitors.
That is exactly what we measure in CreceRank: you set up the most relevant prompts for your industry and the platform sends them to Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews to see where your brand appears, in what position, and which competitors are gaining ground on you.
→ Start 14 days free, no credit card required
Conclusion
So, what is Perplexity? Perplexity is not just another AI tool. It’s a shift in how people search for information: fewer links, more direct answers with verifiable sources.
With over 30 million active users and a sustained growth of 20% monthly, it is already a channel that cannot be ignored neither as a user nor as a brand.
If you want to understand how your company appears when someone asks Perplexity about your industry, the first step is to measure it. In CreceRank you can do it in minutes.
