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Confusion has shattered the current state of the AI market by launching deep research. It is a tool that generates comprehensive research reports in minutes and opens advanced AI capabilities to users at just a small fraction of the typical corporate costs.
“Thanks for open source! Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote in X’s post: “We stay behind indecently expensive subscription plans that benefit businesses, not humanity’s profits. Not!”
Thank you for the open source! Keep this faster and cheaper. Knowledge must be universally accessible and convenient. It’s not staying behind an indecent and expensive subscription plan that benefits businesses but doesn’t have to the interests of humanity! https://t.co/mtg4ozhl4z pic.twitter.com/m1yhtxjkue
– Aravind Srinivas (@aravsrinivas) February 14, 2025
Perplexity Deep Research is redefineing AI pricing – Can Enterprise AI survive?
The launch reveals painful truths with AI pricing. You may not need an expensive enterprise subscription. Humanity and Openai charge thousands of monthly for the service, while Prplexity offers 5 free queries every day for all users. Pro Subscribers pay $20 a month for 500 queries and faster processing each day. This could allow large AI companies to explain why their services are up to 100 times more.
Companies are significantly increasing their AI investment, and enterprise AI spending is expected to increase by 5.7% in 2025 despite IT budgets below 2%. Some companies plan to increase their AI spending by more than 10%, and plan an average increase of $3.4 million to focus on AI initiatives. These investments appear suspicious as the confusion offers similar features at consumer prices.
It’s confusing that Deep Research is better than Google and Openai
The technical achievements of Deep Research suggest that expensive AI services may be expensive, not superior. The system achieved 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark, reaching 20.5% in Humanity’s final exam, surpassing Google’s Gemini thinking and other major models.
Openai’s deep research still leads with 26.6% in the same trial, but Openai charges 200% for its services. Perplexity’s ability to deliver near-enterprise-level performance at consumer prices raises important questions about the AI industry’s pricing structure.
“A deep study of confusion will complete most tasks within three minutes,” the company announced, highlighting its ability to run dozens of searches and simultaneously analyze hundreds of sources. This tool combines web search, coding and inference capabilities to repeatedly refine your research. Imitation of expert researchers and mimic at machine speed.
Why Perplexity’s affordable AI is breaking down the barriers of advanced technology
The meaning extends beyond pricing. Enterprise AI has created a digital divide between funded companies and all other companies. Small businesses, researchers and experts who couldn’t afford a $1,000 subscription were effectively locked out of advanced AI capabilities.
Perplexity’s approach changes this calculation. The tool handles complex tasks, from financial analysis and market research to technical documentation and healthcare insights. Users may export their findings as PDFs, share them through Perplexity’s platform, or replace expensive research subscriptions and specialized tools.
Deep Research has become a product thanks to Perplexity pic.twitter.com/fk8yvptlzv
– Aravind Srinivas (@aravsrinivas) February 14, 2025
The company plans to expand deep research into IOS, Android and MAC platforms, which could accelerate adoption among users who previously deemed AI tools out of reach. This broad access could prove to be more valuable than a technical breakthrough. Finally, we put advanced AI features in the hands of the users who need it most.
For technical decision makers, this shift needs attention. Companies paying premium prices for AI services should look into whether these investments bring value beyond what the current confusion is offered at a fraction of the cost. The answer may reconstruct how organizations approach AI spending after 2025.
While Perplexity’s competitors are scrambling to justify premium pricing, thousands of users have already tested the capabilities of Deep Research. Their verdict may be more important than any benchmark. In the new reality of AI, the best technology is not the most cost-like technology. It’s someone who can actually use it.
