Comet is Perplexity AI’s answer to the idea of a browser that helps you, not just shows you pages. Launched in mid 2025, Comet is a Chromium-based browser that feels familiar like Chrome but adds a built-in AI assistant. The assistant can read pages, answer questions, summarise content, and even run multi-step tasks while you supervise. Comet tries to turn browsing into an active conversation with a helpful co-pilot rather than passive navigation.
This review walks through everything: what Comet does, how it looks and feels, how the AI assistant works, the good parts, the rough edges, privacy and resource considerations, and who should try it today. I also point out the best places to add screenshots so your readers can see Comet in action.
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Quick Snapshot
- Launched: July 9, 2025, initially for Perplexity Max subscribers, now available more widely via invites and a free tier.
- Platforms: Windows and macOS. Chromium extensions and bookmarks are supported.
- Best for: Power users, researchers, and people who want an AI that can automate web tasks.
- Biggest strengths: Context-aware assistant, agentic automation, workflow templates.
- Biggest concerns: Resource use (CPU and RAM), privacy trade-offs, and occasional automation errors.
What is Comet and why it matters
Comet positions itself as a personal assistant browser. Instead of treating the AI as a separate tool, Perplexity embeds the assistant inside the browser UI. The assistant has “eyes” on the current page and open tabs, so it can act using the context it sees. You can highlight a paragraph and ask for a summary, tell the assistant to compare several product pages, or ask it to gather flight options across tabs. The aim is to save time on repetitive work and let you focus on decisions instead of doing copy and paste.
For people who do a lot of research, shopping, or planning, Comet promises to collapse many steps into one conversational workflow. That idea is powerful and, in many cases, quite practical.
Release and access
Perplexity Comet Browser launched on July 9, 2025 as an early access product for Perplexity Max subscribers, a high tier on Perplexity’s pricing. Over 2025 Perplexity expanded access. As of late 2025, Comet can be tried by more users, either via a free tier invite or through Perplexity Pro and Max plans for heavier usage.
You need a Perplexity account to use the AI features. The free tier covers core assistant functions, while advanced automation, higher quotas, and priority access belong to paid plans. Comet runs on Windows and macOS. There is no official Linux or mobile version yet.
Key features and how they work:
Built-in AI assistant with page awareness
Comet’s assistant lives in a sidebar or a pop-up chat panel. It can read the current page and any open tabs you allow. This makes the assistant context aware. Ask it to summarize an article, extract numbers from a report, or translate a paragraph and it uses the visible content to give precise answers.
Use case example: you have three product pages open. Tell Perplexity Comet Browser to “Create a comparison table of these by price and key features” and the assistant parses each page, extracts the values, and returns a formatted table. This saves you manual copying and makes comparisons quick.
One-click summarization and highlights
Highlight a long paragraph, right-click, and ask the assistant to summarize in three bullets. This one-click summarization is a real time saver for long articles or research papers. It works for text, and in some cases is extended to summarize video transcripts or long threads.
Agentic workflows and automation
Comet can act on the web like a helper. You can ask it to draft and send an email, search flight options, fill forms, or group tabs by topic. When APIs are available (for Gmail or Calendar), it will use them with your permission. If APIs are not available, Comet will open pages and “click” through them to collect information or prepare drafts. The sidebar shows progress and asks for confirmation for sensitive actions.
Example: ask Comet to “find cheap flights to Rome in July” and it may show an initial table of options, then open airline sites in the background to refine dates and prices, then return an updated table for you to review.
Workspace and tabs reimagined
Comet offers spaces or workspaces that group related tabs. Inside a space, the assistant keeps context across all tabs. Tell Comet to “plan my research steps based on these tabs,” and it will use everything open in that workspace to create an action plan. This approach changes tab chaos into organized sessions.
Connectivity with external services
Perplexity Comet Browser can connect to Gmail, Google Calendar, and other services with your permission. With those connections it can draft, find, or schedule items more reliably. When it cannot access an API, it falls back to navigating the web page itself.
User interface and everyday experience
Comet looks clean and minimalist. If you know Chrome or Edge, the top omnibox and tab model feel the same. The difference is that the omnibox accepts natural language and the right-hand assistant panel is always available. The homepage usually shows an AI-powered search bar with suggested prompts and widgets for quick tasks.
Opening the assistant shows a chat history, task progress, approvals, and a visual log of actions. You can type or use voice input. The sidebar can be collapsed if you want a normal browsing view.
In daily use, Comet is quick for normal browsing. The assistant only consumes significant resources when handling heavy automation tasks. During long background tasks the sidebar will display a progress indicator and the browser may be busier for a short while.
Screenshot suggestion: Comet home screen showing the AI search bar, widgets, and the assistant panel.
Agentic automation in practice
Agentic automation is the feature that most people talk about. The assistant can be asked to carry out multi-step processes such as adding items to a cart, checking for coupons, finding the best flights under specified conditions, or drafting and sending emails that it composes from content on a page.
When it works, the experience is impressive. The assistant navigates multiple sites, extracts details, and returns structured results so you can review and act quickly. Perplexity makes sure you approve critical steps like purchases or sending emails.
However, the system is still imperfect. The web has many complex and inconsistent forms, login flows, and dynamic content that can confuse an automated agent. Reports and community posts note that Comet sometimes misclicks, gets stuck on quirky payment flows, or takes longer than manual action. The practical advice is to use Comet for gathering, drafting, and preparing tasks, while approving final steps yourself.
Screenshot suggestion: The assistant sidebar showing a completed flight search table and a “Proceed to booking” confirmation prompt.
Performance and resource usage
Perplexity Comet performs like a modern Chromium browser for normal tasks. Pages load quickly, you can install Chrome extensions, and the UI feels responsive. The AI assistant, when active, increases CPU and memory usage. Long background automation can raise resource use significantly, sometimes doubling CPU load and adding multiple gigabytes of memory usage on heavy tasks.
If you use an older laptop or keep many tabs open, you may notice slower performance or fan noise during big automation jobs. For most modern machines the trade-off is acceptable. Perplexity is working on optimisations and updates will likely reduce the load over time.
Privacy and security considerations
Comet needs broad access to do its job. The assistant sees your open tabs, page content, and any services you connect. This is how it can draft emails, schedule events, and automate tasks. The trade-off is that greater convenience comes with privacy risk. Some security researchers have explored attacks that try to trick AI browsers by embedding hidden instructions in web content. Perplexity has patched known vulnerabilities and provides safeguards.
Key safety measures in Comet include: explicit confirmations for sensitive actions, a visible action log, the ability to stop a running task, and privacy settings that limit API access. Perplexity collects interaction data to improve the AI, and the privacy policy explains how that data may be used. If you are cautious, consider using Comet on a secondary profile or limit its access for critical accounts like banking.
Screenshot suggestion: Privacy and permissions panel showing connected services and the option to revoke access.
Pricing and availability
Comet began as a Max subscriber early access product. It later opened to more users via invites and a free tier. The free tier includes core assistant functions, with paid plans offering higher quotas and priority features. Perplexity Pro and Max tiers provide increased access. The Max tier was once priced at roughly $200 per month and targets heavy users and businesses. For many users, the free or Pro tier is enough to test the assistant.
Perplexity Comet Browser is available for Windows and macOS. There is no official Linux or mobile version yet.
Try Comet Browser Now and Get 1 month of Perplexity Pro for free!
Pros and cons on Perplexity Comet Browser
Pros:
- Integrated AI assistant that understands pages and tabs, saving time on research.
- Agentic automation can execute multi-step workflows and prepare results for approval.
- Familiar Chromium base with support for extensions and bookmarks.
- Workspace model helps organize research and keep context across tasks.
- Progressive feature roadmap and frequent updates.
Cons:
- Heavy resource usage when AI features are active, slowing older machines.
- Automation is not perfect and can struggle with complex or nonstandard websites.
- Privacy trade-offs when granting broad access to services and browsing content.
- Some advanced features are gated behind expensive tiers.
- New product quirks and occasional crashes in early releases.
Real world tips and best practices
- Start small: use Comet for summarization and simple comparisons before asking it to automate purchases.
- Approve sensitive steps: always review and confirm purchases, emails, and bookings the assistant prepares.
- Use a secondary profile for risky browsing: keep banking and confidential sessions in a separate browser profile.
- Monitor resource use: close unused tabs or pause heavy tasks if your machine gets hot or slow.
- Keep Comet updated: Perplexity releases fixes and optimizations frequently.
Final Thoughts
Comet is one of the clearest examples yet of what an AI-first browser can do. It turns browsing into a conversation and offers real automation that can save time in many workflows. For researchers, power users, and anyone who spends a lot of time on complex web tasks, Comet can be a practical companion.
That said, Comet is still maturing. The AI assistant shines at summarization, tab organization, and structured comparisons. Where Comet struggles is in fragile automation on unpredictable websites and in the privacy trade-offs you must weigh when giving it broad access. If you have a modern PC and like experimenting with new AI tools, Comet is worth trying. Use the free tier to test the assistant for your typical tasks, and only scale to higher tiers if you need heavier automation.
Comet is not yet a drop-in replacement for every user’s main browser. It is, however, a strong early signal of how browsers will evolve in the AI era. If you want to be early and try a browser that can do work for you, Comet is one of the best places to start.
Try Comet Browser Now and Get 1 month of Perplexity Pro for free!
Have you tried Comet yet? Leave a comment with one task you would try first. If you want, I can make a short comparison article next: Comet vs ChatGPT Atlas, highlighting when to use each one. Want me to write that next?
