$ cat perplexity-comet-free.mdx

Comet is free. End of Chrome?

Apr 25, 2026 · #ai #perplexity #comet #browser #chrome #technology

Comet is free. End of Chrome?

The AI browser that cost $200 per month just became free. On every device. In 48 hours it climbed to #3 on the US App Store.

Comet browser AI free

A year ago, when Perplexity announced it was building its own browser, many people laughed. Another startup trying to fight Chrome? Google holds 90% of browser market share. The competitors are Safari, Firefox, Edge - all from big tech. What chance does a small company have? Zero.

A year and a half later, that small company not only shipped the product but forced the market into a conversation. Comet - a browser with a built-in AI assistant - was available as a premium subscription. $200 per month. A price tier higher than most professional developer tools.

This week, Comet became free. For everyone. On iPhone. On Android. On Mac. On Windows.

What Comet actually does

This isn’t just “Chrome with an AI plugin.” It’s a browser rewritten from scratch around the assistant.

You read a page - the AI reads along with you. You ask a question - it answers in the context of that specific page. Need to fill a form - AI suggests the answers. Doing research on a topic - AI can open multiple tabs in parallel, search through them, and summarize.

In practice, it’s a redefinition of what you do online. Until now: click, read, read more, search, take notes. With Comet: you click, and AI accompanies you - asks “want me to compare prices?”, “should I take a note?”, “is this the same article you saw yesterday?”.

Why Perplexity decided to give it away

Perplexity isn’t running a charity. The company is valued in the tens of billions, fights Google over search, and knows that a single premium app at $200 won’t reach the masses.

The strategy is simple: take Chrome’s millions of users before Google wakes up with an AI-first strategy. Google is building Gemini into Chrome, but slowly. Comet is native. From the first second.

If this works, Perplexity has three hooks in the user’s life: search, browser, AI assistant. Google only had search and browser - and that was enough to build trillions of dollars in value.

My take

In my opinion, this is the first time AI seriously takes over the browser. Not as a plugin, add-on, or gadget - as the default way of browsing the internet.

The question isn’t “will you switch from Chrome to Comet.” The question is “how long until every browser needs to have this kind of assistant”. The answer: probably a year.

Chrome once replaced Internet Explorer not because it was faster, but because it offered something users were waiting for - bookmarks, sync, extensions. Comet offers an assistant that sees the page with you. Once you try it and go back to Chrome, you’ll feel Chrome is stiff, cold, dumb.

But there’s another side - the browser sees every page you visit. If you trust Perplexity with that data the way you trust Google or Apple - fine. If not - worth waiting until a local alternative appears.

Sources

$ cd ../