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If you’ve had interest in Comet, Perplexity’s AI web browser, you likely know it’s well gatekept. Perplexity has limited testing to a small pool of its Max subscribers, which costs $200 per month. Unless you’re willing to burn $2,400 a year on an AI subscription, you have likely resigned yourself to look into Comet from afar.
While Perplexity Max will remain $200 a month for the foreseeable future, you don’t actually have to pay this much in order to give Comet a spin. In fact, you don’t have to pay anything at all. That’s because Perplexity is now offering access to both Comet as well as Perplexity Pro, the company’s $20 per month ($200 per year) subscription, for free, for one year.
The deal is through PayPal and its subsidiary, Venmo. The company announced the partnership in a press release on Wednesday, spinning the news as an AI-enhanced way for PayPal users to shop. That’s per Ryan Foutty, VP of Business at Perplexity, who said, “The Comet browser is like a personal shopper and personal assistant all in one, so we’re excited that PayPal users will have early access to Comet.”
Whether users will actually treat Comet as a “personal shopper” is certainly up in the air. For its part, Perplexity pitches Comet as an AI-powered browser that acts as a both a “personal assistant” and “thinking partner.” You can look things up like you would with another internet-ready AI chatbot, but Comet is also able to perform tasks on your behalf. That reportedly includes shopping, but also things like booking meetings, replying to emails, researching, and autofilling passwords.
PayPal is offering Perplexity Pro, and Comet, through its new subscription hub: The company says this feature is designed to help users manage their subscriptions in one central location, and, to kick it off, your Perplexity Pro trial and subscription can be found here. As part of the promotion, if you link and pay for at least three subscriptions in this new hub, PayPal will credit you $50 cash back.
How to sign up for Perplexity Pro and Comet for free
If you’re interested in this offer, you have two ways to take advantage of it. PayPal says you can either find the promo in the PayPal app or the Venmo app. I didn’t find the promo in my Venmo app, but after downloading the PayPal app and signing into my account, I saw Perplexity Pro available under “Featured offers.”
You’ll need to link your PayPal or Venmo to the Perplexity subscription, and you’ll need to create a Perplexity account if you don’t have one already. If you have a Perplexity Pro subscription, you cannot take advantage of this offer.
While my Perplexity Pro subscription activated without issue, I’m not yet able to take advantage of the Comet offer. Right now, heading to the official Comet site while logged into my account, I have the option to sign up for the waitlist, or “skip the line” by upgrading to Pro. If I choose the latter, since I have Pro, it simply takes me to a page letting me know about the perks of the Pro plan—albeit, with no mention of Comet.
This might be something Perplexity is taking its time rolling out. Until then, I’ve put my account on the waitlist, just to see if that speeds things up.
