Perplexity just made AI research crazy cheap—what that means for the industry

Perplexity has shattered the AI market’s status quo today by launching Deep Research, a tool that generates comprehensive research reports in minutes and opens advanced AI capabilities to users at a fraction of typical enterprise costs.

“Thankful for open source! We’re going to keep making this faster and cheaper,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote in a post on X. “Knowledge should be universally accessible and useful. Not kept behind obscenely expensive subscription plans that benefit the corporates, not in the interests of humanity!”

Thankful for open source! We’re going to keep making this faster and cheaper. Knowledge should be universally accessible and useful. Not kept behind obscenely expensive subscription plans that benefit the corporates, but not in the interests of humanity! https://t.co/mtG4oZhl4z pic.twitter.com/M1yHtXJKUe

— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) February 14, 2025

Perplexity Deep Research is redefining AI pricing — can enterprise AI survive?

The launch exposes a painful truth in AI pricing: Expensive enterprise subscriptions may be unnecessary. While Anthropic and OpenAI charge thousands monthly for their services, Perplexity offers five free queries daily to all users. Pro subscribers pay $20 monthly for 500 daily queries and faster processing — a price point that could force larger AI companies to explain why their services cost up to 100 times more.

Companies have been significantly increasing their AI investments, with enterprise AI spending expected to rise by 5.7% in 2025, despite overall IT budget increases of less than 2%. Some businesses are planning to increase their AI spending by 10% or more, with an average increase of $3.4 million dedicated to AI initiatives. These investments now look questionable as Perplexity delivers similar capabilities at consumer prices.

How Perplexity Deep Research is outperforming Google and OpenAI

Deep Research’s technical achievements suggest expensive AI services may be overpriced rather than superior. The system scored 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark and reached 20.5% on Humanity’s Last Exam, outperforming Google’s Gemini Thinking and other leading models.

OpenAI’s Deep Research still leads with 26.6% on the same exam, but OpenAI charges $200 percent for that service. Perplexity’s ability to deliver near-enterprise level performance at consumer prices raises important questions about the AI industry’s pricing structure.

“Deep Research on Perplexity completes most tasks in under 3 minutes,” the company announced, highlighting its ability to perform dozens of searches and analyze hundreds of sources simultaneously. The tool combines web search, coding capabilities and reasoning functions to refine research iteratively — mimicking expert human researchers but at machine speed.

Why Perplexity’s affordable AI is breaking down barriers to advanced technology

The implications stretch beyond pricing. Enterprise AI has created a digital divide between well-funded companies and everyone else. Small businesses, researchers and professionals who couldn’t afford thousand-dollar subscriptions were effectively locked out of advanced AI capabilities.

Perplexity’s approach changes this calculation. The tool handles complex tasks, from financial analysis and market research to technical documentation and healthcare insights. Users can export findings as PDFs or share them through Perplexity’s platform, potentially replacing expensive research subscriptions and specialized tools.

Deep Research is now a commodity thanks to Perplexity pic.twitter.com/Fk8yvPTLzV

— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) February 14, 2025

The company plans to expand Deep Research to iOS, Android, and Mac platforms, which could accelerate adoption among users who previously viewed AI tools as out of reach. This broad access may prove more valuable than any technical breakthrough — finally putting advanced AI capabilities in the hands of users who need them most.

For technical decision makers, this shift demands attention. Companies paying premium prices for AI services should examine whether those investments deliver value beyond what Perplexity now offers at a fraction of the cost. The answer may reshape how organizations approach AI spending in 2025 and beyond.

While Perplexity’s competitors scramble to justify their premium pricing, thousands of users are already testing Deep Research’s capabilities. Their verdict might matter more than any benchmark: In AI’s new reality, the best technology isn’t the one that costs the most — it’s the one people can actually use.

Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily

If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.

Read our Privacy Policy

Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.

An error occured.