I Ditched My $200/Month AI Tool for This $20 Research Beast (Best Decision Ever!) 🤯🔥

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(Okay, that's kinda a "clickbait" title, but I'm not trying to sell you anything, just getting your attention! 😆)

I thought I'd discuss Perplexity & Comet Browser that's been brought up in here recently!

So, I know we recently discussed Perplexity and its Comet browser, whether anyone is using it, etc.

Well, as you may have heard me whining about over the past couple of months, my longtime multi-LLM/multi modal AI platform glitched for a month in the summer, with crickets from customer support and no explanations, just the silent treatment. Well, it's been working again for the last month or two, but I already cancelled it, the subscription sunsets in about a month.

Anyway, during that blackout period, to get the workflow moving again, I started finding work-arounds. I leaned hard on Microsoft's Copilot - very handy, built into Windows, MS Office, Edge Browser etc. Only at the free tier, well, it's not the most extremely stable, but it's pretty durn good with powerful AI (even GPT-5 available) for "chats" and many productivity tasks.

To a lesser extent, I've also used Gemini's free-tier, still Gemini 2.5, and NotebookLM a bunch, and you may have noticed how Google really came out swinging in the 2nd/3rd quarter this year. Crazy the capability at the free tier.

Well, I just signed up for Perplexity. I've been wanting to try it for a long time because it's know for its research-centric, and good sourcing (references).

It does appear to have a ton of utility built in, it does seem to make a solid reference list for queries (gonna be nice for research), and - of course - it's "agentic" to some degree, you can connect it to outlook/gmail calendars, and a bunch of other apps so that it apparently can check your calendar, add things to the calendar, check and respond to emails, etc.

One thing I've loved about the other platform I've been using, besides all the custom tools and prompts, was that documents could be uploaded (Kinda like NotebookLM - but sources are "trapped" in notebooks here, and only available inside the notebook they've been added to). In my (ex)fav AI Extension, uploaded docs, pics, pasted text, links, could be organized in folders and always available in any chat - so handy.

Well, in perplexity, one feature I'll be using a ton is "Spaces." Documents, references, links and etc. can be added to chats. Chats can be added to Spaces, so everything referenced can be accessed again and research and projects can be continued, or the information can be used in new projects, etc.

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NOW here's where I get lazy and let Perplexity AI tell us some of what it's good for:

(And give a mini demonstration, check out that thorough referencing without any additional prompting!)

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Perplexity.ai is best known as an AI-powered conversational search engine that excels at providing direct, trustworthy answers with real-time citations from the web, positioning itself as both a research assistant and a productivity tool across a range of use cases.zapier+4

What Perplexity.ai Is Best Known For

Delivers highly accurate, well-sourced answers to a wide range of queries, pulling in real-time data from authoritative sources on the internet.perplexity+3
Provides transparency with citations in every answer, making it easy to verify facts and consult original sources.perplexity+2
Uses advanced language models such as GPT-5 and Claude 4.0 Sonnet, with options to choose the AI model for different tasks.digitalocean+2
Offers contextual, memory-based dialogue, enabling multi-turn conversations that build on previous questions.perplexity+1

Most Effective Uses and Features

Research and Information Gathering: Ideal for in-depth research, fact-checking, summarizing articles, and exploring topics thoroughly. Its Pro Search and Deep Research workflows can run in-depth, iterative analysis cycles to deliver comprehensive reports.latenode+3
Learning and Self-Education: Helps users learn new topics, languages, coding, or academic subjects, with the ability to simplify complex material and deliver knowledge in digestible formats.learnprompting+1
Content Creation and Summarization: Supports writing, SEO optimization, content brainstorming, and summarizing lengthy articles and documents.reddit+2
News and Real-Time Updates: Tracks current events, provides news summaries, and delivers real-time alerts and market data.acer+3
Market and Product Research: Gathers competitive intelligence, property market trends, price comparisons, and supports financial research.acer+2
Productivity and Automation: Supports tasks like creating code, generating quizzes, planning trips, home improvement projects, and other daily information needs.reddit+2
Multimodal Capabilities: Pro version enables image analysis, file uploads, charts, and research on uploaded documents or images.perplexity+2

What Sets Perplexity.ai Apart

Focuses on delivering direct answers synthesizing multiple sources, rather than presenting a list of links.perplexity+1
Delivers timely, factual, and cited content, making it popular for professional research, academic work, and anyone needing verifiable knowledge quickly.digitalocean+1
Features adaptive output options and strong customization via model selection and prompt design, making it flexible for a wide range of users.perplexity+2

In short, Perplexity.ai is best known for its blend of fact-checked, conversational answers and advanced, real-time search capabilities for research, learning, and productivity needs.perplexity+3

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Perplexity.ai includes built-in image generation capabilities, allowing users—especially Pro subscribers—to create custom images directly from prompts. This feature supports a variety of leading AI models such as DALL-E 3, GPT Image 1, FLUX.1, Gemini 2.0 Flash, and Seedream 4.0, enabling a range of styles, from photorealistic to artistic and illustrative outputs. Users simply type their specific image request, and the platform generates visuals in seconds; the generated images can also be regenerated or refined as needed.perplexity+3

However, as of now, Perplexity.ai does not support direct video generation—its primary media creation is focused on still images and not on animations or moving content. The service is continuously evolving, so video generation may become available in the future, but there is currently no published support for this capability.perplexity+3

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You can give Perplexity a whirl (and I think get a free Month of Premium):

https://plex.it/referrals/H9NE1UF5

And try the Comet Browser

https://perplexity.ai/browser/claim/W7TVKPGGGH

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