What is Perplexity Assistant?

ChatGPT Operator is a powerful AI agent, but its high cost puts it out of reach for many. Fortunately, Perplexity offers both free and more affordable options that make it easy to access an AI assistant without breaking the bank.

What is Perplexity Assistant?

Perplexity Assistant is an AI-powered assistant that simplifies everyday tasks through natural language interaction and contextual awareness. Unlike typical AI chat apps, Perplexity integrates with a variety of apps to perform useful actions like booking a ride, making reservations, and setting reminders. Perplexity also uses real-time web search to provide accurate and up-to-date information while avoiding common text generation issues like knowledge pruning and illusions.

At the time of writing, Perplexity Assistant is only available on Perplexity's Android app. A Perplexity Pro subscription will further expand the app's capabilities, such as being able to select a specific AI model, higher limits for Pro searches, and FLUX image generation.

Key Features of Perplexity Assistant

Perplexity Assistant is equipped with many features designed to enhance the user experience:

1. Task Management : Assistant helps with everyday tasks like setting reminders, organizing calendars, or creating to-do lists, helping users save time and improve daily efficiency.
2. Smart home integration : Connects to a variety of smart home devices, allowing users to control their home environment through voice commands or assistant interfaces.
3. Action Chaining : Perplexity Assistant maintains context across requests by passing the previous context to the next. Context can be passed to different services, applications, and devices that have Perplexity installed.
4. Generate leads with AI : Use Perplexity Assistant to find contacts, compose emails, and call businesses on your behalf.
5. Camera Integration : Use your phone's camera to give Perplexity visual context when asking questions.
6. Screen Context : Allows you to ask questions based on what you currently have on your screen. You can use this to translate languages ​​and copy text on your screen.
7. Smart Search and Play : Play music and videos by asking Perplexity to be your voice assistant. You can search for a specific song or movie by title or simply provide a description of the media. Perplexity will use default or preferred apps like YouTube and Spotify to play specific media content.

These functions can be used in combination, allowing for more complex functions, useful for all kinds of tasks.

Compare Perplexity Assistant with ChatGPT Operator

Perplexity Assistant and ChatGPT Operator are advanced AI tools. But with ChatGPT Operator priced at $200/month, while Perplexity offers both a free plan and a Pro plan for just $20, you should ask yourself what you're really getting for that price and how are they different?

Both services share many similar features, such as real-time web crawling, text and image generation, task automation, and request processing capabilities. However, they are fundamentally different in how they operate.

Autonomy is perhaps the biggest differentiator. Perplexity requires user input for most actions, meaning it cannot act independently without confirmation. ChatGPT Operator is an autonomous AI agent that can largely handle problems independently. It can perform tasks, interact with websites, and operate with minimal user intervention. This makes ChatGPT Operator a more capable AI solution for achieving certain goals on the Internet.

While Perplexity is much more rigid in its capabilities, it excels as an everyday AI assistant. It's fast, has a ton of little tricks, integrates well with other apps and devices, and is easily accessible on your phone. While it can't solve complex problems on its own, it's useful as a kind of digital all-in-one for everyday life.

Kareem Winters

Update 06 February 2025