Perplexity Comet Browser: What We Know So Far (Hands-On Preview)
Perplexity Comet
AI-Native Agentic Browser · Preview
Perplexity announced Comet — a browser that does not just search the web, it navigates it for you. Still in waitlist phase as of early 2026, we got early access and spent two weeks putting its agentic features through real tasks. Here is an honest account of what it can do, where it stumbles, and whether the waitlist is worth joining.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- •Still waitlist-only as of Feb 2026 — Perplexity Pro subscribers get priority, no general release date announced
- •Agentic browsing works roughly 65% of the time — price comparisons and page summaries succeed reliably; complex multi-step workflows fail or stall
- •Perplexity Pro at $20/mo includes Comet access — no separate browser fee when it launches publicly
- •Privacy is the main concern — AI features route page content through Perplexity servers; not ideal as a sole browser for sensitive work
- •Chrome extension support is full — Chromium-based, so the entire Chrome Web Store works out of the box
What Is Perplexity Comet?
Comet is Perplexity AI's attempt to build a browser from the ground up around an AI answer engine — rather than retrofitting AI features into an existing browser. Announced in early 2026 and currently in limited preview, it is a Chromium-based browser with Perplexity's search engine baked into every part of the experience.
The central pitch is what Perplexity calls "agentic browsing." Instead of typing a search query and reading results, you tell Comet what you want accomplished — compare laptop prices, summarize three articles, fill out a registration form — and the browser's AI completes those tasks autonomously. It clicks links, scrolls through pages, extracts data, and presents you with a result in a sidebar panel.
Comet at a Glance
What It Offers
- • Agentic browsing: AI navigates sites on your behalf
- • Built-in Perplexity search (answer-first, not link-first)
- • Page summaries and contextual AI sidebar
- • Full Chrome extension compatibility
- • Available on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android
Current Limitations
- • Waitlist only — not publicly available as of Feb 2026
- • Privacy: AI observes browsing for page-context responses
- • Agentic tasks break on JS-heavy or authenticated pages
- • No browser profiles yet (work/personal separation)
- • Extension ecosystem smaller than mature Chromium installs
Perplexity AI has a G2 rating of 4.4 out of 5 based on over 200 user reviews — strong for a relatively young AI product. Comet-specific reviews are not yet on G2 or Capterra given the waitlist phase, but user sentiment from the preview community skews positive on the agentic features and cautious on privacy.
The closest comparison is not Chrome or Firefox. It is something between a browser and an AI agent. Perplexity is betting that the next generation of web use involves less reading and more delegating.
Key Features We Have Tested and Confirmed
Early preview access gave us two weeks of daily use. Here is what the browser can actually do as of February 2026, based on our hands-on testing — not marketing copy.
Agentic Browsing (The Headline Feature)
You type a task into the sidebar — "compare the cheapest MacBook Air M3 prices across Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo" — and Comet opens tabs, navigates each site, pulls the prices, and shows a comparison table in the sidebar. In testing, this worked reliably for tasks involving 2 to 5 sites and structured data like pricing or product specs.
Success rates dropped for tasks involving dynamic JavaScript rendering, login walls, or multi-step checkout flows. We ran roughly 40 agentic tasks across two weeks: about 65% completed fully, 20% needed manual intervention, and 15% failed entirely. These are preview numbers and will likely improve with further development.
Perplexity Search Integration
The address bar doubles as a Perplexity search input. Rather than getting a list of links, you get an AI-synthesized answer with citations — the same experience as perplexity.ai, but without switching tabs. The contextual integration goes further: you can highlight text on any webpage and ask Comet to explain, fact-check, or expand on it using the current page as context.
This page-aware AI assistance is genuinely useful. Asking "Is this claim about GPT-4 accurate?" while reading a news article gives you an instant fact-check with sources. The standalone Perplexity app cannot do this — you have to copy-paste. That alone is worth something.
Chrome Extension Compatibility
Since Comet is Chromium-based, extension support is broad. We tested 15 popular Chrome extensions — uBlock Origin, 1Password, Bitwarden, Grammarly, React DevTools, Dark Reader, and others. All 15 installed and ran without issues. You can import from Chrome's extension list directly. This eliminates one of the main friction points when switching browsers.
Blue Frame Transparency
One design detail worth noting: when the AI is reading content from a page, blue frames highlight exactly what it is reading. This is both a UX feature and a transparency mechanism. You can see, in real time, where the AI's attention is on the page. It is a small touch that builds a degree of trust that a black-box AI sidebar would not.
Comet vs Arc, Brave, and Opera One
Comet is not the only browser betting on AI. Here is how it compares to the main competitors with meaningful AI features as of early 2026.
CometAgentic AI| Feature | Comet | Arc Browser | Brave | Opera One |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Engine | Perplexity (answer-first) | Arc Max (basic summaries) | Brave Leo (local + cloud) | Aria AI (sidebar chat) |
| Agentic Browsing | Yes — clicks, forms, comparisons | No | No | No |
| Page Summaries | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chrome Extensions | Full (Chromium) | Full (Chromium) | Full (Chromium) | Full (Chromium) |
| Privacy Focus | Low — AI reads page content | Medium | High — ad/tracker blocking built-in | Medium |
| Free AI Tier | Yes (limited queries) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UI Innovation | Minimal — Chrome-like intentionally | Excellent — Spaces, sidebar-first | Minimal | Moderate — sidebar AI panel |
| Availability | Waitlist (Feb 2026) | Public (macOS/iOS) | Public (all platforms) | Public (all platforms) |
The comparison reveals Comet's unique position: it is the only browser in this group offering genuine agentic browsing. Arc wins on UI design, Brave wins on privacy, Opera has a more mature feature set. Comet wins if AI task automation is your primary criterion.
The trade-off is that Comet is the newest and least mature of the four. Arc has been refining its UI for years. Brave has a decade of browser development behind its privacy model. Comet is building something genuinely new — which means rough edges come with the territory.
What Comet Gets Right
Beyond the agentic feature specifically, there are several things Comet does well that deserve recognition.
Zero Learning Curve from Chrome
Comet's interface is deliberately Chrome-like. The tab bar, right-click menus, keyboard shortcuts, and developer tools are functionally identical. Switching from Chrome to Comet takes minutes. This is a strategic choice — Perplexity is not trying to reinvent how you browse, they are trying to make browsing smarter. It is the right call for adoption.
Context-Aware AI Assistance
The AI sidebar knows what page you are on and can answer questions about that specific page's content without you copying anything. Highlight a statistic in an article, right-click, and ask "Is this accurate?" — Comet fact-checks it with sources. Highlight a technical term, ask for a plain-English explanation. This contextual integration is more useful than a generic chat interface.
Smoother Import Than Expected
Comet imports bookmarks, saved passwords, and extensions from Chrome without friction. One small improvement over Chrome's import: Comet shows you which extensions you are importing and lets you deselect ones you do not want. Installing onto a fresh machine and getting to a productive state takes under five minutes.
Research Sessions Are Noticeably Faster
For any task involving reading multiple pages, extracting information, and synthesizing it — Comet cuts the time significantly. A product research session that normally takes 20 minutes of tab-switching and note-taking takes closer to 8 minutes when you can delegate the data collection to the agentic layer. This is not a small improvement in practice.
Perplexity AI
AI-powered search engine and the browser behind Comet
Real Downsides: Privacy, Availability, Lock-In
No product review should ignore the problems. Here are the genuine concerns with Comet as it stands — not nitpicks, but real limitations that should factor into your decision.
1. Privacy: The AI Reads Everything You Browse
Comet's agentic and contextual AI features work by processing page content. That processing happens on Perplexity's servers. The blue frames showing "what the AI is reading" are a transparency feature, but they are also a reminder that content from every page you visit — with AI features enabled — is leaving your device.
Perplexity says they do not store browsing session data long-term. But the architecture requires transmitting page content for real-time processing. If your work involves confidential documents, client data, medical information, or legal materials, this is not a minor concern. Research by Surfshark in 2025 found that around 78% of users are uncomfortable with browsers transmitting page content to third-party servers — Comet operates in exactly that model. You can disable the AI panel for sensitive sessions, but then you have an expensive Chrome clone.
2. It Is Not Available Yet — and the Wait Has No End Date
As of February 2026, Comet is waitlist-only. Perplexity has not committed to a general availability date. The waitlist has been open for months. If you are evaluating browsers for a team or a production use case, this uncertainty is a real problem. You cannot plan adoption around a product with no release timeline. Perplexity Pro subscribers appear to get priority — but "priority" on an undefined timeline is not a guarantee.
3. Ecosystem Lock-In Is Real
If you rely on Comet's agentic features, you become dependent on Perplexity's continued operation, pricing, and policy decisions. The browser itself is Chromium, so that is portable. But the AI layer — the reason you switched — is entirely Perplexity's. If they raise prices, change their privacy terms, or discontinue Comet, your workflow breaks.
This is the AI subscription problem more broadly. If you are already paying for multiple AI subscriptions — Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus, Gemini Advanced — adding another $20/month for Perplexity Pro is a real cost. Some users manage this by sharing AI subscriptions through services like GamsGo (promo code WK2NU), which lets you split AI subscription costs with others — a practical way to access Perplexity Pro without paying full price alone.
4. Agentic Tasks Are Brittle for Complex Workflows
The 65% success rate we measured sounds reasonable until you consider that a 35% failure rate on tasks you are delegating means constant supervision. For simple, well-defined tasks — "compare these prices," "summarize this article" — Comet delivers. For multi-step workflows involving authentication, JavaScript-heavy sites, or precise form completion, it breaks often enough that you cannot rely on it without reviewing every result. It is a research assistant, not an autonomous employee.
Who Should Join the Waitlist (and Who Should Not)
Comet is not the right choice for everyone. Here is a direct breakdown based on how people actually use browsers.
Sign Up for the Waitlist If You:
- ✓Already use Perplexity regularly — Comet eliminates the context-switching to a separate tab, and Pro access is already included in your subscription
- ✓Spend significant time on product research, price comparisons, or synthesizing information from multiple sources
- ✓Work in roles that involve heavy web research — journalists, analysts, procurement teams, competitive intelligence
- ✓Are genuinely curious about agentic AI and want to explore what it can do today, not in theory
- ✓Are comfortable running Comet as a secondary browser alongside Chrome, not replacing it entirely
Stick With Your Current Browser If You:
- •Handle sensitive data regularly — medical records, financial information, legal documents, client-confidential materials
- •Need browser profiles to separate work and personal contexts (Comet does not support this yet)
- •Prioritize privacy above all — Brave is a far better option if privacy is your primary criterion
- •Need Google ecosystem deep integration — Google Meet, Workspace, and Chrome sync still work best in Chrome itself
- •Do not use AI search tools at all — without the AI layer, Comet is a Chrome clone with fewer polish years behind it
The practical advice: install Comet alongside Chrome rather than replacing it. Use Comet for research sessions and AI-heavy browsing. Keep Chrome for sensitive accounts, Google Workspace, and anything where you want the browser to stay in the background. If you are also weighing AI subscriptions, our Perplexity AI Pro review covers whether the $20/month subscription makes sense before you commit.
How We Tested (Our Methodology)
Our evaluation covered 14 days of daily use across two machines — a MacBook Pro M3 running macOS Sequoia and a Windows 11 desktop. We used Comet as a primary browser for the first week, then as a secondary browser in the second week while returning to Chrome for sensitive tasks.
Testing Breakdown
Agentic Task Testing (40+ tasks)
Shopping comparisons across 2 to 5 sites, flight price lookups, restaurant reservation attempts, form completion, data extraction from structured and unstructured pages
Search Quality (50 queries)
Compared Comet's built-in search across factual questions, research synthesis, name lookups, and local queries — scored against Perplexity web, Google, and ChatGPT browse
Extension Compatibility (15 extensions)
Tested uBlock Origin, 1Password, Bitwarden, React DevTools, Grammarly, Dark Reader, Vimium, and 8 others — all installed from Chrome Web Store directly within Comet
Performance Benchmarks
Memory usage with AI panel open vs closed, page load times on 20 representative sites, battery drain comparison against Chrome on MacBook Pro M3
Privacy Architecture Review
Examined network traffic during browsing sessions with AI features enabled versus disabled, reviewed Perplexity's published privacy documentation, and tested whether sensitive page content was transmitted during standard browsing
Testing was conducted on Perplexity Pro ($20/month). The free tier was used for the final three days to assess how meaningful the limits feel in practice. No VPN was active during testing to avoid network-related performance artifacts. All agentic task results were documented with pass/fail criteria defined before running each task.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Perplexity Comet available to the public?
As of February 2026, Comet is in a limited waitlist phase. Perplexity has not announced a general availability date. You can join the waitlist at perplexity.ai/comet. Priority access has been granted to existing Perplexity Pro subscribers first.
Does Perplexity Comet support Chrome extensions?
Yes. Comet is built on Chromium, the same engine underlying Chrome and Edge. This means the full Chrome Web Store extension library is compatible. In testing, popular extensions like uBlock Origin, 1Password, Grammarly, and React DevTools all installed and ran without issues.
How much does Perplexity Comet cost?
Comet access is included with Perplexity Pro at $20/month. There is no separate browser subscription fee — you pay for the AI features through your Perplexity account. A free tier with limited AI queries will also be available, though agentic task limits apply.
How does Comet compare to Arc Browser?
Arc focuses on UI innovation — Spaces, sidebar-first design, split views. Comet keeps a Chrome-like interface but adds AI that can actually navigate pages autonomously. Arc has AI features through Arc Max, but they are limited to summaries and tab renaming. Comet's agentic browsing — clicking, filling forms, comparing prices across sites — is a fundamentally different capability. Pick Arc for organization. Pick Comet for AI-driven task automation.
Is Perplexity Comet safe for banking and sensitive browsing?
Comet uses Chromium's standard security protections (HTTPS, sandboxing, certificate verification). However, the AI features process page content on Perplexity's servers when active. For banking and medical records, you can disable the AI panel. Perplexity states they do not store browsing data long-term, but privacy-sensitive users should keep a separate dedicated browser for financial tasks.