You probably use Perplexity as a quick answer machine. Instead of Google Search, you ask Perplexity questions, and it responds with citations you can check yourself. While Perplexity is good at this, the scope of what the service can do (especially in the paid tiers) goes way beyond. After integrating some built-in features, harnessing the power of Perplexity Computer’s background processing, and adding the Comet AI browser to the mix, you can turn Perplexity from yet another AI service into a fully fledged research assistant to help you get things done quickly.
Set Perplexity as your default search engine for faster access
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While Perplexity can now do extensive research, create mini-apps, and automate tasks, Perplexity’s biggest advantage is being a search engine alternative to Google Search, one that is heavily focused on showing relevant sources. To that end, if you start using Perplexity more, you might want to make it your default search engine. But in most browsers, Perplexity isn’t recognized as a search engine yet. You’ll have to do so manually.
In Chrome (and Chromium-based browsers), go to Settings > Search Engine > Manage search engine and site search. Go to the Site Search section, and click the Add button. In the Search engine section, type in “Perplexity.” In the Shortcut section, use the “perplexity.ai/search/” URL, and under “URL with % in place of query,” add in this address: “https://www.perplexity.ai/search/?q=%s“. Click the Add button. Then, find the Perplexity engine from the list, tap the three dots, and choose Make Default. Perplexity is now your default search engine.
Use multiple models to reduce hallucinations
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Perplexity AI’s whole thing is that you can use different models, like Gemini, GPT, and Claude, in one interface. And if you’re paying for Perplexity, you can use “Model Council” to make AI models essentially cross-check each other’s work. If Claude Sonnet has a pitfall somewhere, GPT-5 can try to catch it.
When you start a new query, choose “Model Council.” The prompt will now run through the latest Claude Opus, ChatGPT, and Gemini models, respectively. A synthesizer model will then review the output and resolve any conflicts that come up. In the response, you’ll see where a model agrees with an answer, and where they differ. Now, this isn’t a cure for hallucinations: AI models hallucinate. They make things up; they get things wrong. While Model Council can reduce hallucinations, you’re still relying on AI to fact-check here, so exercise caution with your results.
Stop Perplexity from training its AI models on your data
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By default, Perplexity uses your chats and prompts to train its models. If you’re not a fan, there is a way to disable this. Go to Perplexity Settings > Preferences and disable the AI data retention toggle.
Use Scheduled Tasks to run recurring tasks like morning briefs and trend reports
Instead of asking for updates on news, tasks, or emails manually, you can set up Scheduled Tasks to automate them based on your time preferences. You can do this in the regular Perplexity search, as well as in the “Computer” section—though if you plan on using interactive elements like dashboards, stick to the Computer section here. Start with a plain text query like “Send me a news digest with the latest AI headlines every morning at 8 a.m.” You can make it as detailed as you like. Perplexity will display an interface for adding the task. Here, you can customize details such as which model to use, the frequency of updates, and more.
Use “spaces” to use your own trusted data for AI research
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In Perplexity, a space is essentially a project folder. You can use a space to add custom instructions and data that only apply to the particular space and not to everything you ask in Perplexity. Here, you can also upload your own data, like your own PDFs, charts, database files, and more. You can also add links. When you do this, every question you ask will be answered using the data that you’ve fed in. And because this is Perplexity, you’ll find a citation link for each claim in the answer. (Clicking it will take you directly to the reference point in the PDF or the document.)
Use search operators for more accurate AI answers
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Like Google Search, Perplexity AI supports search operators. They can help you narrow down the scope of your query and find relevant information faster. Let’s say you’re searching for a guide on how to solve a problem in software like Premiere Pro. Ask a question and add the “site:(website URL)” at the end. Now, the results will show pages from that site, with citations taking you directly to the relevant part of the webpage so you can check the answer for yourself. Similarly, you can use quote marks to search for specific text, and you can add a time window to surface only recent results. Adding “Last Week” or “This Year” to the end of a query will work just as well.
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Connect your other accounts for richer data and automation
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Connectors can turn Perplexity from a chatbot into a personalized AI assistant. Perplexity has hundreds of connectors available, including for some apps and services you likely often use. That includes Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Slack, among many others. Once you add connectors, you can ground the questions you ask in your personal data. For example, you can ask Perplexity to surface important conversations from your Gmail account, or bring up database changes made by your teammates in Notion.
When you use Perplexity Computer for automation, this also comes in handy. For example, you can ask it to search Gmail for new emails, turn them into tasks, and add them to a Notion dashboard for your team to review. Go to Settings > Connectors to get started. You can use the “@” mention tool to select a connector in the prompt box. Note that Connectors are available for Pro and Max subscribers.
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Perplexity Comet has a built-in research assistant that can maintain the same context window across multiple tabs. It can then execute actions, collect research, or cross-check information across all the open tabs. When you have multiple tabs open, open the Assistant sidebar, and use the “@tabs” action to choose the tabs you want to work with. You can now ask Comet questions to compare details across multiple pages, including specs and prices.
Use the Slash command to create shortcuts for frequently used prompts
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If you find that you routinely ask Perplexity the same question when using Comet, you can turn those queries into shortcuts. In fact, any prompt can be turned into a shortcut, with the opportunity to apply more context after the fact. This works in Comet, and when you’re using Perplexity Computer. To create a shortcut, go to the Perpleixty Computer Skills page in Comet, and click “Create a Skill” to get started. You can talk to Perplexity Computer in natural language to figure out what the skill should do. Once it’s created, type “/” followed by the skill name to trigger it.
Use “visual data analysis” to track and learn more about the stock market
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Perplexity has a dedicated Finance tab, filled with financial analysis data and tools that you can access for free. Perplexity has cataloged financial results and live share price movement in its database. You can ask any question to dive deeper and perform a financial analysis. If you are new to all this, you can ask Perplexity Computer to build visual charts for a company’s earnings report, or you can ask it to perform a deep comparison of earnings reports over the last five years, presenting the results only in graphs and interactive charts.
