Perplexity AI has released a dedicated Mac app, bringing its answer engine directly to desktops. Available on the Apple App Store, the app boasts exclusive features like Pro Search for deeper exploration, text and voice prompting, and cited sources for every answer. It also offers threaded conversations, allowing for follow-up questions and AI recall of past chats, and a library feature to save past searches. Keyboard shortcuts provide quick access, although a specific shortcut (⌘ + ⇧ + P) is listed as “coming soon.”
While the app is free to download, using it requires a subscription to Perplexity Pro, costing $20 monthly or $200 annually. This subscription unlocks benefits such as 600 Pro Searches daily, choice of AI model, and the ability to analyze uploaded files and images. The free web app remains available, offering unlimited Quick Searches and five Pro Searches per day.
This release follows the recent introduction of Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces. Internal Knowledge Search combines web and user-provided file searches for more comprehensive answers. Spaces, similar to ChatGPT Canvas or Claude Artifact, provides a separate collaboration area to preview query responses.
The Mac app is Perplexity’s fourth platform, joining the web app and existing Android and iOS apps launched last year. However, the company faces ongoing accusations of unethical practices, including unauthorized data scraping and copyright infringement, culminating in a lawsuit by News Corp regarding alleged scraping of data from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post.
