Perplexity vs Serif
Perplexity
perplexity.aiSerif
serif.aiSide by side
| Figure | Perplexity | Serif |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | $30/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 15 | 6 |
| Spec score · AI Email Assistants | 8.9 (#4) | 8.7 (#6) |
| Company identity | The pricing page identifies Perplexity as AI for the curious and shows a 2026 copyright. | Crunchbase lists the private company as Serif.ai Inc., active and for-profit, with 1–10 employees. |
Plans
Perplexity
- FreeFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Max$200 a month
- Education ProPriced on request
- Education ProPrice not published
- Enterprise Pro$40 a month
- Enterprise Max$325 a month
- FreeFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Max$200 a month
Serif
- Lite$30 a month
- Standard$50 a month
- Pro$200 a month
- Team$50 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- FreeFree
In their own words
Perplexity
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.
Serif
Serif places an AI employee in shared email addresses such as info@, support@ and billing@ to handle routine messages. It connects to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, or can work with an address of its own. The assistant can qualify and route inquiries, answer common questions, collect paperwork, send quotes and follow up on unpaid invoices. Ambiguous or sensitive messages are escalated to the team, and users can approve replies before allowing independent operation. The shared inbox page offers $100 in free credits without a credit card, and each plan includes a 7-day free trial with full access. Listed plans include Lite at $30 a month, Standard at $50 a month, Pro at $200 a month, and Team at $50 a month per user; each is billed monthly. Serif says it is SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and HIPAA compliant, and that emails are neither used to train general AI models nor stored on its servers. Apps are listed for web, macOS, Windows and iOS; Android is coming soon.