Perplexity Gives Free US Users a Taste of Its AI Agent
Perplexity's September 21 update gives eligible free US accounts a set of included turns with Computer, its agent that carries out multi-step tasks, and adds a new Effort Mode setting.
More people can now ask an AI agent to research and compare local businesses for them without paying. When an AI builds the shortlist, businesses with clear, consistent public information are easier to include than ones that make you call for basic details.
What Perplexity announced
Perplexity’s September 21, 2026 update included several changes. These are the most relevant for small businesses:
- Free turns with Computer: eligible non-paying US accounts now get some included turns with Perplexity Computer before they have to buy credits. Computer is Perplexity’s agent: instead of only answering a question, it carries out multi-step tasks such as research, comparisons and reports. Until now it was mainly for paying subscribers.
- Effort Mode: a Light, Standard, High or Ultra setting that lets people choose how much work Perplexity puts into a task. Perplexity picks the model and reasoning level to match.
- New connectors: these include Omnisend, an email and SMS marketing platform for online stores, plus Evernote and Microsoft 365 for work accounts.
What this does and doesn’t change
The update doesn’t describe any change to how Perplexity picks or cites websites in its answers. What changes is who can use the agent. Free users can now hand Perplexity a job like “find three plumbers near me with good reviews and compare their prices” and let it do the digging.
What it means for small businesses
When an AI does the comparison shopping, it works from what it can find and read. Businesses with clear, consistent information in plain text are easier to include in that comparison: name, services, prices or price ranges, hours, location and reviews, on their website and their Google Business Profile. Businesses that hide that information behind “call for a quote” are harder to include.
Source: View the original source