Perplexity Comet Plus: New revenue model for publishers & Comet Browser explained

Perplexity is currently one of the most exciting players in the field of AI-powered search. It sees itself less as a classic chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude, and more as an “answer engine”—combining generative AI with structured web research.

With its new subscription model Comet Plus and the in-house Comet Browser, the company aims to show what a future beyond traditional search engines could look like—while directly involving publishers in its success.

While Google and others are still grappling with how AI answers can be monetized alongside ad models, Perplexity is taking its own path: content is not only meant to be consumed but also fairly compensated—whether through clicks, AI citations, or automated agent actions.

For publishers, marketers, and businesses, this opens up an entirely new dynamic. Monetization is being redefined, and AI-driven user interactions are moving center stage. As an AI marketing agency in Berlin, we at WEVENTURE Performance closely track these developments for our clients—and are happy to help you prepare your content and marketing for the new AI ecosystems.

What To Expect

• Perplexity Comet Plus – how the revenue model works
• The Comet Browser – when the browser becomes an AI assistant
• Comet Plus – Opportunities and Risks for Publishers and Users
• Perplexity Comet Plus – Conclusion
• FAQ: Perplexity, Comet Browser & Comet Plus

---

Perplexity Comet Plus – how the revenue model works

Perplexity Comet Plus is a new $5/month subscription (approx. €4.60 depending on exchange rates) that shares revenue directly with publishers. For existing Perplexity Pro and Max subscribers, it’s automatically included.

The logic: the majority of subscription revenue flows straight to participating publishers, with only a small portion kept to cover compute costs. This makes Comet Plus the first model that compensates both classic traffic and AI-driven interactions. The offer is tied to the Comet Browser and the assistant.

The three compensated interaction types

• Human Visits – Users click and read articles as usual.
• Search Citations – Perplexity’s AI cites your website in an answer and points back to you as the source.
• Agent Actions – The Comet assistant actively interacts with your site (e.g., scanning a calendar and suggesting matching articles from publishers).

This means Comet Plus pays not only for the traditional click, but also for the new touchpoints created by AI systems.

Onboarding & availability

Publishers can apply directly via publishers@perplexity.ai. A first partner list will be released once the new Comet Browser is available to everyone for free. Currently, Comet Plus is in an early access phase, available to Max plan users among others.

Why is Comet Plus so important?

The reality of how people consume information is changing fast:

• Users increasingly get answers directly from AI systems, without clicking through to websites.
• Citations and agent-driven workflows generate value that previously went uncompensated.
• Publishers risk losing revenue despite maintaining reach—a model that isn’t sustainable long term.

Without fair compensation models, the worst-case scenario is clear:

• Local news portals disappear because they can no longer fund their newsrooms.
• Investigative reporting in politics, business, or health is replaced by shallow AI summaries, which risk spreading errors or half-truths.
• Disinformation and manipulation become easier, since sources are no longer verified or questioned.
• Users gradually lose trust in online content—because they can’t tell whether it’s vetted journalism or auto-generated “prompt text.”

This is where Comet Plus comes in: it provides the first framework where quality-assured content can remain financially viable in the AI age. By compensating not only clicks but also citations and AI actions, the model creates an incentive to keep investing in solid journalism—the foundation for an internet that’s more than just a sea of anonymous, auto-generated AI text.

At WEVENTURE Performance, we see the same logic with our clients: they invest in AI-assisted content creation every month, but always keep human editorial oversight in place. This not only ensures quality but also avoids issues with upcoming EU rules that will require AI-generated content to be labeled starting in 2026.

Context: Publishers vs. online platforms

The relationship between publishers and tech giants like Google has been tense for years—long before ChatGPT or Perplexity.

Past copyright disputes

• Google Library Project in the 2000s sparked lawsuits from authors and publishers over scanned books and inadequate rights protection.
• Copiepresse case in Belgium saw publishers sue Google for showing links and snippets without permission. Google lost and removed the content, which slashed publisher reach—until settlements were reached.

EU regulation & licensing:

With the 2019 EU Copyright Directive, platforms like Google were forced to sign licensing deals with news publishers. In 2024, Google was fined ~€250M in France for failing to negotiate fairly and using publisher content without permission in Bard/Gemini.

AI era conflicts:

New features like Google AI Overviews or AI Mode keep users on Google, causing “Zero-Click Searches”—traffic falls even when visibility rises. This sparked antitrust complaints at the EU level.

In the U.S., a major case against Google’s AdTech monopoly is ongoing, with the court ruling in April 2025 that Google’s practices harm competition, publishers, and users.

Now it’s not just Google: AI players like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are increasingly in publishers’ crosshairs. WIRED even launched a public “AI Copyright Case Tracker.”

OpenAI / ChatGPT

• Ziff Davis (CNET, PCMag, IGN) sued for copyright infringement: training on full articles, ignoring robots.txt, stripping copyright notices.
• Canadian media groups (CBC, Globe and Mail, Torstar) sued over unauthorized use.
• NYT, Tribune Publishing (Chicago Tribune, Denver Post) filed class actions against OpenAI/Microsoft.
• Courts ordered OpenAI to preserve all user chats in ongoing litigation with The New York Times.

Anthropic / Claude

• Major music publishers (Concord, Universal) sued for unlicensed use of song lyrics—damages up to $150,000 per work.
• Reddit sued Anthropic for scraping despite takedown demands, violating TOS.

Perplexity

• Japan’s Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun sued for unauthorized use of content, demanding ¥2.2B (~$15M) in damages.
• In the U.S., Dow Jones, BBC, NY Post, and others have also filed suits.
• Comet Plus is Perplexity’s answer: a revenue-share model that involves publishers instead of bypassing them.

Weitere KI-Anbieter im Visier

• Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt, and others are facing lawsuits for unauthorized use of artistic content, photos, and designs.

The Comet Browser – when the browser becomes an AI assistant

The Comet Browser is Perplexity’s attempt to reinvent how we use the internet. Built on Chromium, it includes all the familiar basics—tabs, extensions, bookmarks—but that’s not the point. Comet isn’t meant to be just another Chrome clone. From day one, it’s designed as an AI-first interface: a browser that delivers answers, completes tasks, and supports users like a personal assistant.

Core idea: “Assistant as Browser”

Instead of being a passive tool for navigating websites, Comet positions itself as an active companion. Through a sidebar, users can summarize content, add events to calendars, or auto-fill forms. Simple natural language commands are all it takes—and the browser does the rest. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas calls the concept a “Cognitive Operating System” rather than a traditional browser.

Key features

Comet’s feature list highlights how far it departs from conventional browsers:

• Automated workflows – Shopping, booking meetings, running complex comparisons—handled directly within the browser.
• Contextual operation – Comet remembers what’s happening across tabs or previous sessions. Commands like @tab let you ask questions in the current context.
• Voice control – Commands can be spoken naturally; the browser acts like a conversation partner, not just a tool.
• Workflow integration – Tabs can be grouped into projects, videos summarized, task lists maintained. Comet becomes part browser, part research assistant, part to-do manager.

Technology & availability

Comet doesn’t just rely on Perplexity’s own models (Sonar, R1). It can also call external LLMs like GPT-5, Claude 4, or Gemini Pro—depending on the user’s plan. Currently, it’s available only in early access for Pro ($20/month) and Max ($200/month) subscribers. A broader rollout—including free users—has been announced.

Security & criticism

As with any AI-powered system, challenges remain. Security researchers have already found vulnerabilities enabling prompt injection—hidden instructions in website code that manipulate the assistant. Audits by Brave and Guardio also flagged potential phishing risks, since Comet partially bypasses existing browser safeguards like the same-origin policy.

A new gateway to the web

Despite open questions, Comet illustrates what the web could become: moving from static “click and read” experiences to fluid, AI-driven workflows. Instead of just searching for information, users may soon organize processes—while the browser executes tasks in the background.

Whether this vision takes hold depends on one crucial factor: Perplexity’s ability to build trust and make Comet accessible to the mass market.

Comet Plus – Opportunities and Risks for Publishers and Users

The launch of the Comet Browser and the Comet Plus program shows that Perplexity is rethinking the web—and this has direct consequences for both publishers and users.

Opportunities for Publishers

For media companies and content providers, Comet Plus introduces a way to generate revenue beyond the traditional click. The revenue-share model compensates not only direct visits but also new AI-driven interactions:

• Citations in AI answers – If your site is cited as a source, you receive compensation, regardless of whether users actually click through.
• Agent interactions – When the Comet assistant uses your page (e.g., scanning event calendars or articles), this also generates measurable value.

Publishers can actively leverage these mechanisms to unlock new visibility and monetization potential:

• Optimize for AI citations: Structure content for high citation potential: clear headlines, schema markup, concise summaries.
• Create content for agent workflows: FAQs, databases, schedules, or how-to guides are especially useful to AI agents—assets that can drive recurring usage.
• Experiment with paywalls & hybrid models: Basic content remains free, while in-depth research or premium insights could be monetized through Comet.
• Brand positioning in AI ecosystems: Early investment builds reputation. Being frequently cited strengthens trust and authority in the eyes of users.
• New measurability & attribution: New KPIs are emerging: number of citations, agent interactions, revenue attribution. This requires fresh analytics and reporting models.
• First-mover advantage: Early partners often gain overproportional visibility and strategic leverage in new ecosystems.

👉 At WEVENTURE, we help publishers and companies structure content for AI search systems like Perplexity—optimizing technical integration (LLMO/GEO, schema, SEO, content) and building KPI systems that make AI-driven revenue measurable and manageable.

Risks and Open Questions

Uncertainty remains around how much revenue publishers can realistically expect—and whether it will match or replace previous traffic-driven models. Worst-case scenarios include:

• Platforms consolidating traffic, cutting publishers off from direct visits.
• Users consuming only summarized answers via AI, bypassing original sources.
• Publishers becoming dependent: those outside the program risk invisibility.

User Perspective

For users, Comet promises convenience: fewer clicks, faster answers, integrated workflows. But questions remain:

• Transparency – Will users clearly see where information comes from?
• Privacy – How secure are personal details if the browser fills forms or accesses calendars?
• Neutrality – Can the assistant stay unbiased if monetization interests are in play?

Balancing Innovation and Fairness

The hard truth: if publishers can’t generate sustainable revenue, the foundation of a diverse and reliable internet—and, by extension, democracy itself—erodes. The worst-case outcome would be a flood of AI-generated text without editorial oversight: shallow, error-prone, and vulnerable to misinformation.

With Comet Plus and the Comet Browser, Perplexity is testing a model that combines innovation with compensation. Whether it succeeds will depend on how fair, transparent, and rewarding participation is for publishers—and whether users are willing to pay.

👉 We help publishers and businesses make their content visible, citable, and monetizable within AI ecosystems like Comet—from technical integration to reporting and funnel strategies. Get in touch, and let’s build your strategy together.

Perplexity Comet Plus – Conclusion

The launch of Comet Browser and Comet Plus marks a turning point. The rules of the web are shifting—away from the classic click, toward AI citations, agent interactions, and new usage paths.

For users, this is convenience. For publishers, however, it’s existential. Without sustainable models that fairly compensate content in the AI era, we risk an internet where quality is replaced by auto-generated text without editorial oversight. The consequences would be severe: less diversity, more disinformation, and a loss of trust in the digital space.

Comet Plus is an initial attempt to counter this trend. Whether it works remains to be seen. What matters now is that publishers, media outlets, and businesses take action: structuring content to be visible and usable for AI systems while building their own revenue models for the future.

This is where we come in. As an online marketing agency in Berlin, we help you position your content within the AI marketing ecosystem, make citations and interactions measurable, and turn them into new revenue streams and visibility.

👉 Reach out if you want to be among the early movers—and benefit from the shift before others set the rules.

---

FAQ: Perplexity, Comet Browser & Comet Plus

What is the Perplexity Comet Browser?

The Comet Browser is a Chromium-based web browser from Perplexity that combines traditional browser functions (tabs, extensions, bookmarks) with an integrated AI assistant. Users can have web pages summarized, forms auto-filled, appointments organized, or complex research tasks handled directly within the browser—all controlled via text or voice.

How does Comet differ from other browsers like Chrome or Safari?

The key difference lies in AI integration. While Chrome or Safari are primarily navigation tools, Comet positions itself as a “Cognitive Operating System”: an environment where search, navigation, and automated tasks (agent workflows) converge. This transforms the browser from a passive tool into an active assistant.

What is Comet Plus?

Comet Plus is a subscription model from Perplexity (approx. $5/month, included in Pro and Max) that directly shares revenue with participating publishers. The key feature: it compensates not only traditional page visits, but also citations in AI answers and agent interactions on publisher websites.

What opportunities does the Comet Browser offer for publishers?

Publishers can position themselves early as a reliable source within the AI ecosystem. The more often their content is cited or used in the Comet Browser, the greater the visibility and trust they gain—alongside direct revenue. In addition, they can deliberately develop new content formats (e.g., FAQs, databases, event calendars) that integrate particularly well into agent workflows.

What risks do publishers face?

It’s still unclear how substantial the revenues will be and whether they can truly replace the traditional advertising model. There’s also the risk that publishers who don’t participate in Comet Plus may become less visible. Another concern is dependency—platforms could gain even more control over visibility and compensation, leaving publishers vulnerable to shifting terms and business models.

Is the Comet Browser already freely available?

Currently, the browser is only accessible in early access through the Perplexity Pro and Max plans. A broader release—including for free users—is planned, along with upcoming mobile versions.

What are Comet’s technical features?

Comet can run multiple AI models—not just its own (Sonar, R1), but also GPT-5, Claude 4, and Gemini Pro. It also offers features like @tab for context-specific queries, voice control, cross-session memory, and the ability to handle complex tasks through integrated workflows.

What about security and privacy in the Comet Browser?

External audits (including by Brave) have identified vulnerabilities such as prompt injection and potential security risks in handling website code. Perplexity is working to close these gaps. For users, the key question remains whether they are comfortable entrusting their personal data to an AI-centered browser.

How can publishers and businesses prepare for Comet Plus and the AI browser trend?

Publishers should structure their content so it’s easily identifiable, citable, and usable by AI systems—for example through schema markup, clear data structures, and high-quality FAQ and evergreen content. Companies can strengthen their brand positioning by strategically developing content that remains visible within AI workflows.

This is exactly where we step in: with our AI marketing experts in Berlin-Kreuzberg, we support you from content optimization for LLMs (LLMO/GEO) and technical SEO to reporting and KPI models that make revenue from AI-driven traffic measurable.