Get recommended by Perplexity
Perplexity is built as an answer engine: every response is a summary of live web sources with numbered citations. Its product direction leans hard toward research and finance, which shapes who uses it and what they ask.
What the data says
How people use Perplexity to search in 2026
People use Perplexity when they want a sourced answer rather than a list of links: research questions, comparisons, current events and anything they plan to check. Its Research mode runs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources and returns a report in a few minutes, which suits analysts, consultants and buyers doing due diligence. Perplexity says finance is one of the most popular uses of Perplexity Computer, its agent product, and it has built heavily around that: Perplexity Finance covers markets, earnings, screeners, watchlists and portfolios, and Computer for Professional Finance ships 35 workflows such as company tearsheets and sourcing screens.
Shopping is the other growth area. Since November 2025, Perplexity's shopping experience has been free for all US users, with conversational product discovery, product cards that pull together specs and reviews, and checkout through PayPal in which the retailer stays merchant of record. For B2B brands, Perplexity tends to appear in the evaluation stage, when a buyer wants to check claims, compare options, or understand a market before talking to sales. Perplexity has not published a recent breakdown of who its users are, so treat its research and finance lean as a product focus rather than a measured audience split.
How Perplexity finds and cites sources
According to Perplexity's help center, it interprets the question, searches the internet in real time, gathers information from sources such as articles, websites and journals, and compiles the most relevant points into an answer. Each answer includes numbered citations that link to the original sources. Pro Search runs a deeper multi-source search and lets subscribers choose the underlying model, including OpenAI's GPT-5 and Anthropic's Claude models, and Research mode automates dozens of searches for longer reports.
Perplexity runs two web agents. PerplexityBot exists to surface and link websites in Perplexity's search results, respects robots.txt, and sites that block it will not appear in those results. Perplexity-User visits pages when a person asks about them and generally ignores robots.txt because the fetch is user-initiated. In finance, Perplexity also pulls from licensed data, and in Computer every numeric value links back to its source, down to the specific SEC filing pages used. Perplexity does not publish ranking factors for which web pages it cites.
How to earn visibility on Perplexity
Allow PerplexityBot
Make sure robots.txt, your CDN and any bot protection allow PerplexityBot. Perplexity says sites that block it will not appear in its search results.
Answer with verifiable specifics
Perplexity favors pages it can cite cleanly. State the answer directly, then support it with numbers, dates, named standards and links to primary sources a reader could check.
Publish research-grade pages
Perplexity's users run comparisons and due diligence. Comparison pages, methodology explainers, data studies and clear pricing logic are the formats that get pulled into research-style answers.
Get your public facts right
For public companies and finance-adjacent brands, make sure filings, investor pages, press releases and third-party profiles agree. Perplexity's finance tools trace numbers to their source, so inconsistencies show.
Make products easy to evaluate
For ecommerce, keep specs, reviews and pricing complete and consistent across your site and retailers, and use PayPal checkout if you want eligibility for in-Perplexity purchases.
Earn citations from the sources it reads
Perplexity cites articles, journals and industry sites as well as brand pages. Coverage in trade publications and credible reviews gives it independent evidence to recommend you.
It is not just about traffic
Perplexity's users come to check facts and compare options, so a citation there reaches buyers who are evaluating seriously. The aim is to be the source Perplexity recommends at that point and to turn the visit into a qualified conversation. AlchemyLeads is a revenue-first AI search agency: we confirm Perplexity can reach your site, build pages that answer research-style questions with verifiable specifics, earn the third-party coverage it cites, and track AI-referred visits through to pipeline. For one industrial ground-monitoring manufacturer, that work produced 4,500 AI citations across 18 pages in six months and 170% more requests for quote.
Straight answers
How many people use Perplexity?
Perplexity's most recent public usage figure is 780 million queries in May 2025, shared by CEO Aravind Srinivas, who said volume was growing more than 20% a month at the time. Perplexity has not published a confirmed 2026 total. Higher figures circulate online, but they are estimates, so we do not cite them.
Is Perplexity really used for finance?
Perplexity has invested heavily in finance. It runs Perplexity Finance for markets, earnings, screeners and portfolios, launched Computer for Professional Finance in May 2026, and in August 2026 connected more than 20 licensed data sources. Perplexity says finance is one of the most popular uses of Computer. It has not published a share of all queries that are finance-related.
How does Perplexity decide which sources to cite?
Perplexity searches the web in real time, gathers information from sources such as articles, websites and journals, and summarizes it with numbered citations. It does not publish ranking factors. In practice, pages that are crawlable by PerplexityBot, answer the question directly, and contain specific, verifiable facts are the ones it can cite with confidence.
Does Perplexity have shopping?
Yes. In November 2025 Perplexity launched a shopping experience free to all US users, with conversational product discovery, product cards with specs and reviews, and instant checkout through PayPal. Retailers remain the merchant of record, so they keep the customer relationship, handle returns and own post-purchase communication.
Should we block Perplexity's crawler?
Only if you are willing to disappear from its answers. Perplexity says sites that block PerplexityBot will not appear in its search results. Its second agent, Perplexity-User, fetches pages when a person asks about them and generally ignores robots.txt. If you block anything, make it a deliberate decision with the visibility trade-off in mind.
Sources
- TechCrunch: Perplexity received 780 million queries last month, CEO says, Jun 2025
- Perplexity: Computer for Professional Finance, May 2026
- Perplexity: Computer connects to 20+ new licensed finance data sources, Aug 2026
- Perplexity: Shopping that puts you first, Nov 2025
- Perplexity Help Center: How does Perplexity work?, Sep 2026
- Perplexity Docs: Perplexity crawlers, Oct 2026
- Perplexity Finance, Oct 2026
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