Overview: Perplexity Makes Comet Free for All, with a Mobile Roadmap
Perplexity has officially made its Comet browser free for all users. CEO Aravind Srinivas announced on X that everyone can download Comet and use the Comet Assistant, with a mobile version coming soon. Since its July launch, interest has surged; the waitlist crossed millions, and trial users engaged far more with the AI, asking between six and eighteen times more questions to Perplexity. The move follows a staged rollout that previously limited access to Perplexity Max subscribers and Indian Pro subscribers.
Comet vs Chrome: Where AI Browsing is Headed
The broader tech backdrop is Google’s integration of Gemini into Chrome, signaling a major AI upgrade for one of the world’s most-used browsers. Perplexity counters with a browser built around the Comet Assistant, designed to answer questions directly from any webpage, manage tabs, search for flights, and facilitate online shopping with simple prompts. The result is a different browsing flow—more in-browser intelligence that aims to reduce the friction of flipping between tabs and search results. The two approaches reflect a growing AI browser race that also includes OpenAI and Anthropic in various capacities.
Comet Plus and Publisher Partnerships
In a bid to address the wider debate about using online content to train AI, Perplexity introduced Comet Plus. This $5 subscription gives AI-assisted access to journalism content while compensating publishers, with CNN and The Washington Post among the initial partners. Notably, Comet Plus is bundled free for Perplexity Pro and Max subscribers, signaling a model that adds AI value without extra cost for existing paid tiers. This approach aims to balance user experience with publisher rights in an AI-enabled browsing landscape.
Adoption, Competition, and Market Context
Perplexity is not alone in pursuing AI-powered browsing. OpenAI’s Operator and Anthropic have also rolled out browser-based agents, illustrating a crowded field of AI-enabled browsing experiences. The attention around Comet’s free-for-all shift follows evidence that Comet users asked 6 to 18 times more questions on average, suggesting high engagement with AI during browsing sessions. Earlier this year, Perplexity publicly pursued a high-profile bid to acquire Chrome for about 34.5 billion, underscoring the company’s ambition to shape the future of the browser landscape.
Availability and Future Plans
Beyond free access, Perplexity plans a mobile version of Comet in the near term, expanding cross-device usage. The rollout has included staged access, such as making Comet available to all Pro subscribers in India in late September, signaling a global expansion toward a mainstream AI-assisted browsing experience. The company’s strategy points to a broader trend: making AI assistants a standard part of the browsing experience rather than a premium feature reserved for early adopters.
Implications for the Future of AI Browsing
As AI assistants become embedded in daily web use, the economics of AI content and the rights of publishers grow more complex. Comet Plus’ publisher partnerships and compensation model offer a concrete step toward addressing these concerns while preserving a frictionless user experience. The overarching question for users and developers is how to sustain high-quality AI responses without compromising privacy, data use, or editorial integrity as AI tools increasingly shape what people read, buy, and plan online.
Conclusion: A Moving Target in the AI Browsing Race
Perplexity’s decision to offer Comet for free to all users accelerates the shift toward AI-powered web navigation. With Chrome leveraging Gemini and competitors expanding their browser-based agents, users can anticipate a more capable, more conversational browsing experience across devices in the months ahead.
