Perplexity AI on Wednesday announced that its Perplexity AI browser is live for users around the world — and, in a move that’s sure to turn heads, it is making the $200-a-month tool free for all.

The browser was released in July for Perplexity Max subscribers. But Comet is no ordinary Comet browser free download. Instead, it bills itself as a personal AI assistant that can do more than browse the web. People can use it to organize tabs, write emails, go shopping, and more. Interest in Comet was off the charts: The waitlist to use it was reportedly in the millions. By dropping the paywall, Perplexity is betting that Comet will grow faster if it’s free and will be able to go toe-to-toe with Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

The timing is significant. Big Tech firms are racing to embed AI into the web-browsing experience. Comet vs Google Chrome: Last month, Google announced Gemini in Chrome. Anthropic unveiled its browser-based AI agent in August. OpenAI introduced Operator in January. Perplexity itself grabbed headlines in August when it made a $34.5 billion hostile Perplexity AI Chrome alternative.

Perplexity is perhaps best known for its new AI browser 2025, which provides direct answers along with links to the underlying sources. The company has had a checkered history with publishers. After publishers raised objections over its scraping of content without attribution, the company said in 2024 it would pay them a cut of its revenue. Comet browser features Plus still provides access to premium content, including from CNN, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Le Monde, and Le Figaro.

Perplexity says two features are coming in the future, including a mobile version of Comet. The second is called Background Assistant, which will let users multi-task asynchronously in the background. By taking down the paywall, Perplexity has opened Comet up to the masses.