Perplexity announced its new $200 monthly Max subscription plan on July 2, 2025, offering unlimited access to its Labs development tools and priority access to upcoming features, including the forthcoming Comet AI browser. Max subscribers will receive priority when using Perplexity services with the latest frontier models such as OpenAI o3-pro and Claude Opus 4. This new subscription tier specifically targets users such as business strategists, academic researchers, and content creators who require extensive research tools for their daily work.
With this move, Perplexity has joined the growing camp of AI providers offering premium subscriptions: OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Pro in December 2023, followed by Anthropic's Claude Max in April, while Google launched its $249.99 AI Ultra package in May, which is currently the most expensive on the market. According to financial data published by The Information, Perplexity generated approximately $34 million in revenue in 2024, primarily from its $20 monthly Pro subscriptions, but recorded losses of about $65 million, mainly due to significant expenditures on cloud servers and using models from OpenAI and Anthropic. The subscription is available alongside the existing Pro ($20/month) and Enterprise Pro ($40/person/month) packages, with the company planning to introduce an Enterprise Max version in the near future.
Perplexity's success may largely depend on its ability to collaborate with AI providers while competing with them in the AI search market, where competition is intensifying due to developments from Google AI Mode and OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company's business model has evolved significantly by January 2025, reaching $80 million in annual recurring revenue, and in May 2025, it was in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, though it's unclear whether this round has officially closed. The additional revenue from Max subscriptions could strengthen the startup's competitiveness in this rapidly evolving market.
Sources:
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Maxwell Zeff
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Perplexity AI · July 2, 2025
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PCMag · July 2025
