Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity

Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant available on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It supports web search, file uploads, image generation, app integrations, team workspaces, and AI bot generation. A free plan offers limited access subject to capacity and usage limits. Paid Microsoft 365 plans bundle Copilot with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, Defender, and Teams. Microsoft 365 Personal costs $99.99 a year for one person, includes 1 TB of cloud storage, and allows sign-in on five devices at once. Family costs $129.99 a year for one to six people and provides up to 6 TB of storage, but AI features are available only to the subscription owner. Premium is $199.99 a year; Pro is $99.99 a month. Paid plans provide increased usage for chat and visual AI assistance, with agentic AI usage limited on Premium and highest on Pro. AI-generated audio is English only.

Perplexity is an answer engine that searches the open web and returns answers with inline citations. It can search files and connected apps alongside the web, and can select among more than 20 leading models, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Nemotron. Deep Research conducts searches across many sources and produces a report. Access is available on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows, with an API also listed. The free plan has limited weekly use for simple questions. Pro costs $20 a month and adds Computer, premium data sources, web search, files, apps, model council, and model selection. Max costs $200 a month and offers higher limits for Deep Research, resource generation, file uploads, and monthly video creation. Enterprise Pro is $40 a month per seat; Enterprise Max is $325 a month per seat. Enterprise plans bill by seat, and API use requires separate credits. Perplexity lists more than 400 app connectors.