Between Perplexity’s new macOS app and ChatGPT’s search launch, conversational search just got a lot more fun

The AI-powered search game is heating up, with OpenAI adding search capabilities to ChatGPT just yesterday, and Perplexity launching a macOS desktop app a week ago. Perplexity could be considered a leader in AI-powered search right now, and now Mac users can quickly use Perplexity’s advanced search engine right from their desktop without having to access it through a web browser.

If you’re not familiar with Perplexity, it’s a conversational search engine that launched the same year as ChatGPT. It allows you to ask questions and make queries using natural language (like how we communicate with each other in real life). Similar to ChatGPT, there are two tiers for users – a free ‘Standard’ tier which allows you to make unlimited ‘Quick’ searches, ideal for those seeking quick, basic answers produced by the Standard Perplexity AI Model (plus five free Pro tier searches a day), and the ‘Pro’ tier which includes Quick searches as well as 600 Pro searches a day.

It’s these Pro searches that are recommended for more complex and lengthy queries, allowing you to choose from several different AI models and tools, including OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Athropic’s Claude-3. It also includes the ability to analyze files like PDFs, spreadsheets, and images using AI tools. You can subscribe to Perplexity Pro for $20 a month or $200 annually.

What makes Perplexity on macOS so good?

Now, the macOS app brings these kinds of key Perplexity features straight to your desktop, allowing you to make Pro searches by typing or using your voice. Then, Perplexity will return real-time answers, powered by advanced AI models, which come with cited sources – so you can check the veracity of Perplexity’s answers for yourself.

The app also brings a new threaded conversation capability, letting you ask follow-up questions about your initial query without Perplexity losing the context of the original question, allowing for a more naturalistic back-and-forth. It also has a library feature that saves past searches and discoveries, along with the ability to create custom shortcuts to quickly access your favorite features.

Before you consider subscribing, I would recommend you try Perplexity for free first – either in your browser or by downloading the app for macOS, available from the Mac App Store now.

It’s interesting to watch the number of AI-powered conversational search products expand, and I’ve seen discussions around ChatGPT’s new search features on sites like Reddit arguing that this could (or perhaps, should) light a fire under companies like Google to stay competitive. If you’re a ChatGPT Plus user, Team user, or signed up to the SearchGPT waitlist, you should see ChatGPT offer you the option to search the web for answers. Enterprise and Education users will get access to this in the next few weeks, and it will become available to all free users in the next few months.

You can already get the ChatGPT desktop app for both macOS and Windows 11, and I assume its search capabilities extend to the app (or at least, they will soon).

I think it’s hard to call if Perplexity or ChatGPT will end up ahead when it comes to conversational search. ChatGPT has more recognition, but Perplexity has been in this specific game for a little longer. Either way, I’m intrigued and will be watching closely, and I’m pretty eager to dig into both of them.

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