Perplexity launches Comet Plus, a subscription model that pays publishers

Perplexity’s Comet Plus is an AI browser subscription that pays publishers from user visits, AI citations and agent actions for their content.

Perplexity has launched Comet Plus, a groundbreaking subscription service designed to benefit publishers in the age of artificial intelligence. With this new offering, Perplexity becomes one of the first AI companies to introduce a revenue-sharing model for publishers whose content powers its ecosystem.

Comet Plus pioneers fair pay for publishers in the AI-powered web era. (Perplexity)

By Amit Rahi

For the past seven years, I have tracked consumer tech through constant shifts in hardware, platforms, and the way people actually use devices. Covering everything from budget gear to flagship hardware, I focus on what readers need to know, not on buzzwords or launch cycle hype. My expertise spans gaming laptops and chairs, high-performance PCs, gaming monitors, printers, smartwatches, earphones, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, tablets, and more, with a particular emphasis on how these products hold up in daily use. Reviews, explainers, buying guides, and news pieces all share the same goal: giving readers enough detail to make confident decisions without wading through fluff. Away from deadlines, I spend a lot of time gaming and watching films and anime, which naturally filters back into the work. Performance, comfort, display quality, and sound are judged the way players and viewers experience them, not just by lab numbers, which keeps my coverage grounded in real scenarios rather than just benchmarks.

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What is Comet Plus?

Comet Plus is a subscription tier for users of Perplexity’s AI browser, Comet. For $5 a month, users will get access to premium content from a curated group of publishers and journalists. It is available free of charge to existing Perplexity Pro and Max members. The publisher payout calculation system in Comet Plus is unique; it not only pays for traditional clicks but also for citations in AI-generated answers and actions by AI agents as forms of value creation deserving compensation.

Perplexity has committed an initial pool of $42.5 million to be distributed among participating publishers in its program. Out of all the revenue generated through Comet Plus subscriptions, 80% will go directly to the publishers, while the remaining 20% will cover compute and operational costs.

The model allocates payouts based on three traffic types: human visits to publishers’ websites from Comet, citations in AI-generated responses, and AI agent activities that leverage publishers’ content to complete user tasks.

The initiative arrives amid concerns from publishers that, because users are turning toward artificial intelligence for answers, revenue from traffic has been significantly affected. By introducing this transparent and direct revenue stream, Perplexity aims to address the tensions with content publishers.

"Perplexity only succeeds if journalism succeeds. We’re really committed to building and funding more sustainable, thriving news ecosystems for the AI age," said Jessica Chan, Perplexity’s head of publisher partnerships.

The launch of Comet Plus marks a significant milestone in how AI companies and publishers can coexist with mutual benefit. This ensures high-quality content continues to thrive as AI becomes an integral part of browsing, research, and daily work.