Comet is now on iOS. Perplexity’s AI browser, which debuted on desktop final summer season at a worth that made most individuals do a double-take, is now free on cell, with non-obligatory paid tiers beginning at $20 a month. It was alleged to launch on March 11.

The crew pushed it again every week. It went stay yesterday.

Here’s what it truly is. Comet blends a conventional browser with an AI assistant that may summarize pages, reply questions, and perform duties on a consumer’s behalf. The agentic method, the place the AI doesn’t simply reply however actively navigates, clicks, and completes actions, has turn out to be the defining function in what’s now a crowded discipline of AI-enhanced browsers.

The sensible options on iOS are price realizing. The browser delivers normal search outcomes for easy, high-intent cell queries like scores, native companies, and instructions, whereas routing extra advanced inquiries to Perplexity’s reply engine for researched, cited responses. Deep Analysis, Perplexity’s multi-source synthesis software, is totally out there on the cell model. Analysis threads sync throughout desktop and cell, so customers can begin a activity on their laptop computer and decide it up on their cellphone with out dropping context. Voice mode is in. Extensions usually are not, as a result of Apple’s platform restrictions.

The app takes full benefit of Apple’s Liquid Glass design language, and it may be set because the default browser. No iPad model but.

A couple of issues price realizing earlier than you obtain.

Each iOS browser is required to run on WebKit, the identical engine that powers Safari. So Comet can’t compete on uncooked rendering efficiency. What it’s betting on is the whole lot that occurs after the web page masses. That may be a reliable product guess, and it’s the proper one for what Perplexity is making an attempt to construct.

Perplexity collects looking and search historical past from Comet to construct ad-targeting profiles. That isn’t buried within the phrases. The corporate has been clear about it. But it surely does reframe what free means right here. A browser with entry to your tabs, your emails, your procuring, your calendar, and your analysis threads is a reasonably intimate instrument. The commerce being supplied is comfort in alternate for an in depth behavioral profile. That may be a commerce folks make daily, knowingly and never. It’s simply price naming clearly when the product is positioned as a pondering companion.

Perplexity is reportedly in discussions with smartphone producers about pre-installing Comet on upcoming gadgets. If that occurs, the distribution story adjustments significantly. A browser that ships pre-installed doesn’t have to win you over within the App Retailer. It simply must be ok that you don’t change away.

The browser class has not seen real disruption since Chrome dethroned Web Explorer fifteen years in the past. What Comet, Chrome’s Gemini integration, and OpenAI’s Atlas browser are all pointing towards is that the subsequent model of that disruption isn’t about pace or requirements compliance. It’s about what the browser does if you find yourself not actively driving it.

That may be a completely different form of browser. Whether or not it’s one folks truly need is the query this launch begins to reply.