What is Perplexity, how it works and what the Pro version of this artificial intelligence search engine is like

Let’s explain to you what is Perplexitythe popular conversational artificial intelligence search engine. It is a tool that seeks to revolutionize the way you find content on the Internet, although currently chatbots such as ChatGPT, Copilot either Gemini They are also capable of using AI for these searches, although they do not specialize in it.

We are going to start the article by briefly explaining what exactly Perplexity is and its internal workings, as well as the difference compared to conventional search engines. Then, we will tell you in a simple way what the external functioning of the search engine is like, and the functions they have. We will finish by talking to you about its paid version.

What is Perplexity

Perplexity is a conversational search engine that works through artificial intelligence. seeks to offer an easier to use alternative to Googleand in which you will not have to go in and out of links to find the answers you are looking for.

The main difference with conversational search engines is the way you interact with it. While with Google or Bing you have to type keywords to find the content, with Perplexity you have to ask a question with natural languageand the AI ​​will understand what you are trying to find, and offer you the answer.

It is able to do this because inside the search engine we have an artificial intelligence system that, like ChatGPT or others, has been trained to analyze your text and understand natural language with whom you are asking something. With this, when you ask it a question it extracts the meaning of the words and how they work together, and allows more precise searches.

On Google, when you want to write more specific things and ask very long questions, the results may be very bad because it tries to find content with all the words. Perplexity understands the concept of what you want to findand with that performs more precise searches.

Furthermore, this search engine is respectful of its sources. Unlike ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini, the web pages from which the information was obtained do not seem hidden. Instead, it shows them at the top, and you can click to go directly to specific pages or click on the box where they all are to display them as a list.

In this way, Perplexity also allows you verify information more easily. Artificial intelligence systems sometimes make mistakes or hallucinations in their response, and having sources of information nearby will make it easier to verify that what they say is true.

How Perplexity works

Perplexity’s home page is similar to other artificial intelligence search engines and chats. Upon entering perplexity.aiyou will have a search field where you can write what you want to find. Below you will also have some suggestions for questions in case you don’t know how to start using it.

Below the search field you have several options. With the Focus option you can choose where to search of what you want to find. For example, in addition to searching the web, you can search in academic documents, or social networks, you can search videosand even receive better answers to writing or mathematical problems.

You will also have options to upload a PDF file and perform internal searches, or to activate Pro mode, which is the paid version of Perplexity. For these two functions you will first have to create an account, although not necessary for simple searcheswhich you can do without a user account.

When you ask a question, Perplexity will compose an answer based on the information it has found on the Internet. But on top of this answer you have a Sources section with the pages Where did you get the information from? On the right, you can also display images or videos, to see those that are related to the search you have performed.

In the section of Sources you have four paintings. The first three are links that take you directly to the pages from which the most information has been obtained, and the fourth allows you open a list with all sources that you have used and the articles from which the information with which you have generated the response came. This way, you can enter the one you want just as you do with Google.

For some questions you will be answered with graphics or images, especially for quick ones that you can ask, such as what the weather is like today or tomorrow in a certain city.

Perplexity vs Perplexity Pro

Perplexity has a paid version called Perplexity Pro. In exchange for a monthly payment of 20 euros, you will have advanced functions, such as choose the AI ​​model you want to usebeing able to choose, in addition to their own, other much more famous ones.

This is the table with the differences:

As you can see, the main difference is that you can make daily Pro queries with which to obtain better results, and you can compose the answers with other artificial intelligence models like GPT-4o and others. Thus, you do not depend on the advances of the Perplexity model, and you can use other more advanced ones.

There are also advantages when it comes to uploading files and analyzing them, which is an unlimited function, and composing images to visualize the responses, something that in the Pro version you can do… and using different image-generating AI models.

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