Perplexity's Search API Opens Door for Developers

Perplexity is stepping straight into Google GOOG and Microsoft's MSFT turf. The startup has launched its Perplexity Search API, a tool that lets developers tap into the same global-scale infrastructure behind its fast-growing answer engine.

The new service gives developers access to an index of hundreds of billions of web pages, refreshed in real time. That scale matters in the AI era, where apps depend on deep, reliable context. When it comes to AI, context is king, the company wrote in a blog post, adding that its system doesn't just search at the document level but slices content into smaller chunks that can be ranked and retrieved on the fly. For developers, that means cleaner results, less preprocessing, and quicker integration.

Alongside the API, Perplexity rolled out a software development kit to show exactly how it designed and optimized the system. It's a clear sign the company wants to be seen not just as an AI answer engine, but as a search infrastructure provider too. The push comes weeks after Perplexity made headlines with a surprise $34.5 billion bid for Google's Chrome browser.