Introducing Comet Plus

The internet is no longer something we simply browse—it's where we live, work, and think. 

Today we are announcing Comet Plus, a new subscription that gives Perplexity users access to premium content from a group of trusted publishers and journalists. 

As the web has become central to our lives, our expectations of it have changed. That’s one reason we built Comet. Today, people use the internet to find and access content they love. They use AI on the internet to find answers to any question. They ask their AI assistants and agents to complete tasks across a combination of the open internet,  their personal subscriptions, and their private tools.

A better internet requires a better model

AI is an intrinsic part of how we browse the internet. When you read the news on a website with your morning coffee, that's human traffic. When you ask Perplexity to synthesize recent coverage of an industry trend, that's indexed traffic. When Comet Assistant scans your calendar and suggests articles relevant to your day’s meetings, that's agent traffic. Each represents real value creation, yet traditional models only compensate for the first.

Meanwhile, publishers are trapped in the now-primitive economics of clicks and pageviews, compensation models built for a world that is rapidly changing. The quality of knowledge has never mattered more, but the systems that reward it haven't evolved.

Comet Plus transforms how publishers are compensated in the AI age. As users demand a better internet in the age of AI, it’s time for a business model to ensure that publishers and journalists benefit from their contributions to a better internet. 

A business model for The AI age

Comet Plus is the first business model to reflect what users demand from the internet today, as AI empowers them to discover, learn, and do more. Subscribers of Comet Plus gain direct access to the sites and content of participating publishers, empower their AI assistants to complete tasks on those sites, and benefit from direct answers informed by the highest-quality content on the web.

Publishers become more useful to their readers and their readers’ assistants, offering custom experiences for both human and user agent traffic while ensuring their important journalism and content contributes to a better internet for the users who demand it. In exchange, we’re distributing all of that revenue to participating publishers, minus a small portion for Perplexity’s compute costs. 

Comet Plus is the first compensation model that allocates revenue to our partners based on three types of internet traffic: human visits, search citations, and agent actions. Publishers should settle for nothing less. The revenue allocation recognizes the reality that users now choose how they want to consume information: browsing manually, asking for AI-generated answers, or deploying agents for complex tasks. Publishers deserve compensation that matches this new reality.

Publishers and AI, working together for users

The internet is better on Comet. As the web has evolved beyond information to include knowledge, action, and opportunities, excellent content from publishers and journalists matters even more.  Users are exhausted by  low-quality clickbait, high-friction experiences, and endless blue links to human slop and no answers.  They’re not alone. Publishers who’ve been forced to adapt to that model of the web have lost trust from readers and eroded their brands to stay afloat.  

AI has already given internet users the power to get more from the web, and the Comet browser is now the best way to ensure the web continues to get better, for everyone. 

Comet Plus will be a $5 standalone subscription. Pro and Max subscribers get Comet Plus included in their memberships. We’ll announce our initial roster of publishing partners when Comet becomes available to all users for free. Publishers interested in participating can join the program by emailing us via publishers@perplexity.ai.