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Perplexity, the AI-powered answer engine company, has announced that its Comet browser is now free for all users on Mac and Windows, having previously been exclusive to its Max subscribers. Comet is not a traditional browser but is designed as an AI-first “thought partner” that uses conversational AI to handle tasks and synthesize information, fundamentally changing the browsing workflow.
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Here is a breakdown of how the Perplexity Comet AI browser differs from conventional browsers like Chrome and Firefox:
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| Feature | Perplexity Comet AI Browser | Google Chrome / Mozilla Firefox |
| Core Purpose | AI-Centric Productivity & Research. Designed to be an “Agentic AI” that completes tasks and provides direct, sourced answers. | General Purpose Browsing. Designed primarily to display websites and navigate the web manually. |
| Search Engine | Perplexity AI is the default search engine, which provides a summarized answer with citations before a list of links. | Traditional Search Engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo) that primarily return a list of links for the user to click through. |
| User Interaction | Conversational/Task-Driven. The Comet Assistant is built into a sidebar on every tab, allowing users to ask natural language questions, summarize pages, compare products, and give multi-step commands. | Manual Interaction. Users must manually type keywords, open multiple tabs, read articles, and copy/paste information. |
| Workflow/Tabs | Workspaces & Context. The browser is designed to reduce tab clutter by synthesizing information across multiple pages and maintaining a task’s context across sessions. | Tab-Based Isolation. Each tab is largely isolated, requiring users to switch between them to compare information or manage tasks. |
| Automation | Agentic Capabilities. The free version offers task automation features like shopping comparisons and personalized content via a Discover tool. Premium tiers offer “Background Assistants” that can complete multi-step tasks (e.g., draft emails, book flights) on your behalf in the background. | Limited Automation. Relies primarily on extensions for complex tasks; built-in AI (like Google’s Gemini in Chrome) is mainly used for search summaries and generating simple text. |
| Underlying Tech | Built on Chromium, which means it supports most Chrome extensions and offers a familiar feel. | Chrome is built on Chromium; Firefox uses its own Gecko engine, prioritizing customizability and privacy. |
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