Perplexity’s Comet Browser Aims to Rethink How You Search and Work Online

• Comet is an AI-powered browser developed by Perplexity, integrating real-time search and chat-based querying into a single workflow.
• With Google Chrome dominating the market, Comet offers a fresh alternative built around AI-native user behaviours.

The way we use the internet has changed, but the tools we use to access it have mostly stayed the same. That’s the core idea behind Comet, the new browser from Perplexity AI. Designed not just to deliver information but to help users synthesise it, Comet isn’t pitching itself as a faster or more lightweight Chrome clone. It’s proposing a different relationship with the web altogether—one rooted in AI-assisted exploration.

At its heart, Comet isn’t trying to copy the browser status quo. It’s trying to rewrite it.

An AI-Powered Browser Built From the Ground Up

Comet combines browsing and search into one continuous interface. You’re not jumping between a search engine tab and your target content. Instead, you stay in a single view, asking questions, refining them, and receiving sourced answers all in one flow. The tool uses Perplexity’s proprietary AI engine to generate responses that cite their sources, letting users verify information without toggling back and forth.

While traditional browsers still dominate by usage share—Google Chrome leads with over 64% globally, according to StatCounter—tools like Comet are beginning to carve out a user base, especially among researchers, students, content professionals and digital strategists who feel constrained by the tab-heavy clutter of older interfaces.

A Tool for Researchers, Not Just Casual Surfers

Perplexity is clear about who they’re building for. Comet is not designed as a general-purpose browser. Instead, it targets users who spend time:

• Reading research papers
• Drafting detailed reports
• Comparing technical documentation
• Summarising dense articles
• Tracking multi-source stories

If you’re someone who toggles between Google Docs, five Reddit threads, two Google Search tabs, and a ChatGPT window, this browser is meant to centralise that process.

The AI functionality sits natively inside Comet. That means you can highlight a section of a website, ask for clarification, and receive a summary—all without leaving the page or running an extension. The system understands context, responds to queries, and provides linked citations from reputable sites, including BBC, Wikipedia, academic journals, and government sources.

Design That Reflects New Habits

Modern browsing isn’t linear. It’s layered, recursive and fragmented. You start with one question, find a partial answer, then open ten tabs to chase context. Comet recognises this and turns it into a guided process.

The interface is intentionally minimal, but not stripped. On launch, you’re greeted with a search-and-chat hybrid window, similar to what users may have seen in AI platforms like Perplexity’s own site or Microsoft Copilot. But unlike those tools, this window is not just a sidebar—it’s the main interface.

Rather than delivering a list of links, Comet offers a cited answer by default. Underneath that answer, you can click into each source, ask follow-up questions, or pivot your search entirely.

Source Citations and AI Transparency

One of the recurring challenges with AI search is trust. Users often don’t know where information comes from or whether the AI has stitched together incorrect facts. Perplexity has addressed this by placing citations front and centre.

Every answer includes footnotes linking directly to its source. These sources are not hidden or generic—they point to the original text used to formulate the summary. In testing, links often came from outlets like The Guardian, Scientific American, NHS digital libraries, and university databases.

The presence of these sources not only increases user trust but also changes user behaviour. Instead of copy-pasting text into Google to verify, users can click once and audit the AI’s work themselves.

Chrome, Bing, ChatGPT: Where Comet Fits In

It’s tempting to compare Comet to other AI-infused products. Bing, for example, has integrated ChatGPT-powered summaries. Chrome offers extensions for ChatGPT that allow summarising content or rewriting copy.

But those are bolt-ons. Comet is built around AI from the ground up. You’re not adding functionality—you’re starting with it.

In Comet, there is no clear divide between searching and browsing. You’re always doing both.

This isn’t just philosophical. It changes the workload.

Rather than parsing through a list of ten links and summarising them yourself, the AI does it for you. You can still check sources, ask follow-ups, or reframe the question, but the mechanical work of scanning and collecting is greatly reduced.

No Extensions, Yet

As of July 2025, Comet does not support Chrome-style extensions. That may be a dealbreaker for power users who rely on password managers, grammar tools, or developer plugins.

But it’s also a signal. Comet is positioning itself as a tightly controlled environment where the AI can function without third-party disruptions.

Comet supports Chrome extensions at launch due to its Chromium framework, as confirmed by Perplexity’s documentation and reviews.

Global Reach and Early UK Adoption

Despite being based in the US, Perplexity’s reach is growing in the UK and other English-speaking markets. Interest from academic institutions, tech media and marketing professionals is particularly noticeable.

While there is limited public data on UK-specific Comet usage, Perplexity.ai ranks among the top 5,000 most visited websites in the UK, according to recent data. And with English being the default language for most academic and professional research, the tool’s appeal crosses borders easily.

What This Means for Content Creators and Brand Marketers

For those on the publishing side of the web—journalists, SEOs, content strategists—Comet introduces new expectations.

AI-generated summaries mean your content may be surfaced without the user ever visiting your page. That places more weight on your headlines, structured data, and metadata.

If your article isn’t structured clearly, or if the AI cannot parse your source as reliable, it may not appear at all in the result.

In this landscape, it’s not enough to rank well on Google. You need to write in formats that AI can ingest and represent fairly.

This means:

• Using headings that reflect search intent
• Citing your sources within the article
• Publishing data and facts that are verifiable

It also creates new stakes for misinformation. Brands that publish poorly sourced or ambiguous content may find themselves ignored by AI summarisation tools.

Performance and Platform Availability

Comet is currently available for macOS and Windows via download from Perplexity.ai. A mobile version is in development.

The browser uses the Chromium framework, meaning it retains the basic web compatibility users expect from Chrome-based browsers.

Looking Ahead: A Browser Built for Active Users

There’s no shortage of AI-powered tools on the market. What separates Comet is its attempt to change the structure of how you browse and search. It’s not layering AI on top of your existing behaviour—it’s asking you to adopt new ones.

For some users, this will be an instant upgrade. For others, it may feel unfamiliar or limited, especially without extension support.

But as browsing becomes increasingly about interaction rather than navigation, tools like Comet may become the norm rather than the exception.

If you find yourself constantly juggling tasks across search engines, research documents, summarisation tools and chat windows, Comet offers a centralised alternative. Whether it replaces your current browser or becomes a specialised side tool will depend on how deeply you work with information.

One thing is clear: Perplexity isn’t just building a product. They’re proposing a shift in how people think about using the internet.

And for a tool released less than a year ago, that’s already making ripples worth watching.