Perplexity
Perplexity is a Mac AI search and chat app that helps you ask questions, research topics, and use desktop AI features from one place.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is a native Mac AI search and chat app for asking questions, researching topics, and getting conversational answers with cited web results. It is built for people who want a desktop tool for quick lookups, longer research sessions, and AI-assisted follow-up questions without staying in a browser tab. On macOS, the app also serves as the home for Perplexity’s newer desktop features, including Personal Computer, which can interact with apps, files, and web tasks when you choose to enable those capabilities. Common uses include exploring unfamiliar subjects, summarizing information, comparing options, and continuing work across desktop and mobile devices. The app is most relevant to knowledge workers, students, and anyone who prefers an AI-first research workflow on Mac.
Key features
- Ask questions in natural language and get conversational answers
- Review responses that cite web sources for follow-up research
- Continue multi-turn research with context-aware follow-up questions
- Use voice input for hands-free interaction
- Access desktop AI features that can work with apps, files, and web tasks
- Start research on one device and continue it across your account
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Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
Perplexity is legitimate software, but some Mac features can request broad permissions such as Accessibility, Screen Recording, and Full Disk Access so the app can interact with your Mac, view on-screen content, and work with files. That level of access is normal for its desktop automation features, but it also means you should grant only the permissions you actually want to use and keep sensitive work closed when those features are active. If you only want AI search and chat, you may not need to enable the more powerful desktop controls.
Recommendation: Keep Perplexity if you use it for AI search, chat, or desktop research on your Mac. If you installed it only to try it and do not use its Mac features, you can remove it like other apps; doing so will stop its desktop workflows and any related local settings or cached data.
Common paths
/Applications/Perplexity.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/ai.perplexity.mac
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/ai.perplexity.mac
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/ai.perplexity.mac.plist
Container paths
~/Library/Containers/ai.perplexity.mac
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