Industry Perplexity Perplexity Abandons Advertising, Goes Subscription-Only
Perplexity AI drops all advertising from its platform, betting on subscriptions and enterprise revenue. Deep Research also upgraded with Claude Opus.
No More Ads in AI Search
Perplexity AI announced on February 18, 2026 that it is completely abandoning advertising on its platform. The company will focus exclusively on subscription and enterprise revenue, making it one of the few major AI companies to commit to an entirely ad-free experience.
The decision is a direct bet against the direction taken by Google and OpenAI, both of which are exploring or implementing advertising within their AI products. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas stated that sponsored content in AI-generated answers would undermine user trust — the core value proposition of a citation-first search engine.
The Financial Math
The move is less risky than it appears. Perplexity’s advertising revenue was less than 0.1% of total revenue — approximately $20,000 out of $34 million in 2024. The company reached $200 million in annualized recurring revenue by October 2025 and is targeting $500 million by the end of 2026, driven entirely by Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscriptions.
With over 45 million monthly active users and approximately 1.2 billion search queries per month, the conversion to paid plans remains the primary growth lever.
Deep Research Gets Smarter
Alongside the advertising announcement, Perplexity upgraded its Deep Research feature with Claude Opus, significantly improving the quality of multi-step research reports. Deep Research now produces more comprehensive analysis with fewer hallucinations, leveraging Perplexity’s proprietary search engine and sandbox infrastructure alongside top-tier language models.
The upgrade also adds memory to the system — Perplexity now remembers user preferences and context across sessions, making repeated research on similar topics more efficient.
Comet Browser Expanding
Perplexity’s AI-native web browser, Comet, is expanding to iPhone on March 11, 2026. Built on Chromium, Comet integrates Perplexity’s search directly into the browsing experience — summarize any page, ask questions about content, and search without switching apps. It is already available on Mac, Windows, and Android.
What This Means for the AI Search Market
Perplexity’s ad-free commitment creates a clear market positioning: it is the AI search engine you use when you need trustworthy, unbiased answers. As Google integrates AI Mode into Search (with advertising) and OpenAI explores commercial partnerships, Perplexity is betting that a segment of users will pay specifically for the guarantee that their results are not influenced by advertisers.
For researchers, journalists, and professionals who rely on factual accuracy, this commitment adds another layer of trust to an already citation-focused product.