Perplexity Computer

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Perplexity Computer is Perplexity's agent platform, which the company describes as a general-purpose digital worker that operates the same interfaces a person does. You describe an outcome, and Computer plans the work, splits it among subagents, and routes each subtask to the AI model best suited for it. It can browse, research, code, build apps and websites, and connect to your tools, running for hours or, Perplexity says, even months. The platform now spans several surfaces:

  • Computer (cloud): The original agent, launched February 25, 2026. Each task runs in its own secure cloud sandbox and can draw on 19 or more models from different labs.
  • Personal Computer: Lets Computer work with the files and apps on your own Mac or Windows machine.
  • Portable Computer: A local-first version that runs the model and agent harness entirely on your own hardware, with no credits used for local work.
  • Everywhere else: Computer is also available on desktop, mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365, and inside the Comet browser's assistant.

Perplexity was founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas and others. Computer marked its shift from answer engine to agent platform.


Perplexity Computer treats AI models like an orchestra: one conductor plans the work, specialist models handle each part in parallel, and the whole job runs in a sandbox that can live in the cloud, on your desktop, or entirely on your own GPU.


  • The Mechanism: A central orchestrator model reads the goal, maps out tasks and subtasks, and deploys subagents in parallel. At launch, Claude Opus 4.6 served as the orchestrator and handled coding, with other models routed by specialty:
    • Gemini: deep research
    • GPT-5.2: long-context work
    • Grok: quick, lightweight searches
    • Nano Banana and Veo 3.1: images and video

Users can also tell Computer which models to use for its subagents. Every cloud task runs in SPACE, Perplexity's sandbox platform, which treats the agent as untrusted by default:

    • each task gets its own Firecracker microVM
    • credentials stay outside the sandbox and are injected only when needed
    • outbound traffic is controlled outside the guest
    • snapshots can roll back destructive changes

Computer reaches your tools through hundreds of connectors (Gmail, Slack, Notion, Calendar, and more), plus custom Skills, Projects, persistent memory, and file support.

  • The Physics: A multi-model agent that runs for hours meets hard limits on money, hardware, and safety:
    • Credits: Computer uses usage-based credits on top of a subscription. Max includes 10,000 credits a month, and tasks consume credits based on complexity. Spending caps and sub-agent model selection help control costs.
    • Effort: Effort controls, from Light to Ultra, match model selection and reasoning depth to each task.
    • Local hardware: Portable Computer needs serious hardware. It shipped first on Nvidia DGX Spark and Linux PCs with RTX GPUs, then on Windows PCs with RTX GPUs (24 GB or more of VRAM) and on AMD Ryzen AI Max systems.
    • Local context: The local Qwen 3.8 27B model has a 256,000-token context window, so Portable Computer uses context compaction to stretch long tasks.
    • Accidental meltdowns: Perplexity warns that agents pursuing legitimate goals may cross security boundaries when they hit friction such as a failed API call or an expired credential. That is why it layers independent safeguards instead of trusting any single one.
  • Why This Matters: Computer is Perplexity's bet that the winning agent orchestrates every lab's models rather than depending on one.
    • Multi-model by design: Perplexity has said that by December 2025, no single model handled more than 25% of usage on its platform.
    • Productivity claim: Perplexity says its own teams used Computer to do 3.25 years of work in four weeks, saving $1.6 million in labor costs (vendor-reported).
    • Local-first option: Portable Computer brings the same interface to a fully local app, keeping private data on the device and escalating to the cloud only with permission.
    • Distribution: Samsung gave Perplexity OS-level access on the Galaxy S26, and HP is preloading the Perplexity Windows app on new PCs.
    • Security tooling: Perplexity has open-sourced its BrowseSafe prompt-injection detector and its Numbat agent-monitoring suite, and it publishes red-team results on its own sandboxes.

Deployment Modes

Mode Where It Runs What It's For
Computer (cloud) A per-task Firecracker microVM in Perplexity's SPACE sandbox, with 19 or more cloud models. The full digital worker: research, coding, building apps, browser automation, and connected workflows.
Hybrid Compute on Mac Cloud models plus local Apple Silicon models in the Mac app. Keeping sensitive files and steps on the device while the cloud handles the rest.
Personal Computer The user's own Mac (all users) or Windows PC (Pro and Max). Letting Computer work with local files and desktop apps.
Portable Computer Fully on device: Nvidia DGX Spark, RTX GPUs on Linux or Windows, or AMD Ryzen AI Max PCs. Private, credit-free local work. Runs Qwen 3.8 27B or PPLX 27B, a Qwen variant Perplexity post-trained on its own harness.
Automations Computer's cloud agent, triggered by a schedule or by events in Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Linear, or GitHub. Standing assignments that remember prior runs, such as weekly reports, reply drafts, and missed-deadline alerts.
Work apps and Comet Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and the Comet browser's assistant. Assigning Computer work from wherever the team already is.

Portable Computer adds its own guardrails on top of the local model:

  • Deterministic orchestrator: The control loop is harness code, not an LLM, and it enforces policy.
  • Always-on sandbox: Approved tool calls run in an OS-level sandbox that fails closed. If the sandbox is unavailable, the harness disables itself.
  • Cloud escalation on request: Escalating to a stronger cloud advisor model requires user approval. A PII classifier first shows exactly what would be sent.

Getting Started

  • Plans: Computer is available to Pro and Max subscribers on desktop, mobile, Slack, and Microsoft 365, and to Enterprise customers. Max costs $200 a month ($2,000 a year) and includes 10,000 credits a month.
  • Start a task: Open perplexity.ai/computer and describe the outcome you want. Computer deploys subagents, works in the background, and lets you keep guiding it as it goes.
  • Connect tools: Add connectors such as Gmail, Slack, Notion, and Calendar at perplexity.ai/computer/connectors, and add Skills to tailor how Computer works.
  • Set effort: Choose an effort level from Light to Ultra to balance quality against credit use.
  • Automate recurring work: Describe the job in Computer's omnibar, or open Automations and choose New Automation. Set a schedule or event trigger, connect accounts and Projects, and state which actions need human review.
  • Run locally: In the Perplexity app's Local Inference settings, download a local model with one click (Qwen 3.8 27B or PPLX 27B) to use Portable Computer on supported hardware.
  • Build on it: Developers can use the Agent API, which now supports reusable agents with versioned Profiles, Skills, and managed connectors that teams share across applications.
  • Govern it: Enterprise admins can limit connector permissions and actions, review real-time audit logs, and bring their own encryption keys. Revoking a key makes protected data unreadable, and the agent cannot override that.

Known Limitations

  • Credit costs: Long, multi-model jobs consume credits quickly. Computer is not sold separately from a subscription, and usage beyond included credits costs extra.
  • Hardware gates: Portable Computer runs only on high-end GPUs or Ryzen AI Max systems. Its local models are far smaller than the cloud roster, so complex tasks may need cloud escalation.
  • Vendor-reported claims: Productivity savings, model-usage statistics, and the "hours or months" runtime come from Perplexity's own announcements.
  • Residual security risk: In Perplexity's red-team test, nine frontier models given root access inside SPACE all failed to escape the VM. Some did find ways around the network policy when partial network access was allowed, gaps Perplexity says it has since fixed. Perplexity also notes that no prompt-injection detector is fail-safe.
  • Legal overhang: Perplexity faces active copyright suits from publishers including Dow Jones, The New York Times, CNN, and Reddit, which could affect how its agents use web content.

Recent Developments

  • August 2022: Aravind Srinivas and co-founders established Perplexity AI.
  • July 9, 2025: Perplexity launched the Comet AI browser for Windows and macOS. It later reached Android (November 2025) and iPhone (March 2026).
  • January 2026: Perplexity signed a three-year, $750 million deal with Microsoft for Azure and Foundry, giving it access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.
  • February 2026: Perplexity dropped advertising for a subscription-first model, and Samsung gave it OS-level access on the Galaxy S26.
  • February 25, 2026: Perplexity launched Computer for Max subscribers, with Pro and Enterprise access coming later. Launch details included:
    • orchestration across 19 models, with Claude Opus 4.6 as orchestrator
    • 400+ app integrations
    • spending caps
    • 10,000 monthly credits, plus a one-time 20,000-credit launch bonus
  • March 11, 2026: At its first Ask developer conference, Perplexity launched Personal Computer for local desktop work and Computer for Enterprise, with Slack integration, Snowflake connectors, and 20 orchestrated models. The same month it launched the Secure Intelligence Institute for agent security research.
  • July 2026: Perplexity open-sourced Numbat, an agent-monitoring suite for developer endpoints.
  • August 25, 2026: Perplexity and Nvidia launched Portable Computer, a fully local version of Computer for DGX Spark and RTX-equipped Linux PCs. Local work uses no credits, and every task starts on the device by default.
  • September 2026: Perplexity shipped a burst of Computer updates:
    • September 1: Hybrid Compute on Mac, mixing cloud and local Apple Silicon models
    • September 14: Portable Computer for Windows PCs with Nvidia RTX GPUs
    • September 15: HP began preloading the Perplexity Windows app on new PCs, and Crusoe signed a multi-year Nvidia GB300 compute deal with Perplexity
    • September 17: effort controls, from Light to Ultra
    • September 21: Perplexity described post-training a Computer model on real-world experience to reduce user corrections and tool errors
    • September 23: Perplexity published red-team results on SPACE (Escaping SPACE, Part I)
    • September 24: Portable Computer on Windows PCs with AMD Ryzen AI Max processors
    • September 28: reusable agents in the Agent API
    • September 29: Automations replaced Scheduled Tasks, adding event triggers and memory of prior runs, and Perplexity published its defense-in-depth security design
    • Also during September: Computer became available as a Microsoft Teams app, and Personal Computer opened to all Mac users
  • October 1, 2026: Perplexity and American Express released 10 business Skills for Computer, covering cash flow, marketing, hiring, and more.

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