What is Perplexity AI? Analyzing the Growth and Stats of a Leading AI Search Engine

Launched in 2022, Perplexity AI revolutionized the booming market of generative AI. But what is Perplexity? This innovative artificial intelligence platform was created by a dream team from OpenAI, DeepMind and UC Berkeley using the most advanced language models (GPT-4, Claude-3.5, Claude-3 Opus). With it, users can solve complex queries with ease as well as receiving concise and accurate responses. Reaching over 10 million active users per month in just 2 years and 67.42 million visits in May 2024, Perplexity is slowly climbing to the top of this growing industry.

In today’s article we’ll take an in-depth look at Perplexity AI’s key statistics, user demographics, revenue and metrics to learn more about this exceptional artificial intelligence and see what the future has in hold for it.

Perplexity AI Key Stats

• Perplexity AI has over 10 million active users per month.
• The platform received a total of 67.42 million visits in May 2024.
• In 2023, there were over 500 million requests on Perplexity AI.
• 56.69% of Perplexity users are male and 43.31% are female.
• The average user session is almost 11 minutes (10 minutes and 53 seconds).
• The top countries that use Perplexity are the United States (16.39%), India (6.98%) and Indonesia (6.02%).
• Perplexity AI raised a total of $99.2 million as of January 2024.
• The platform is valued at over $520 million as of January 2024.
• Perplexity experienced a 858% increase in interest over the past year in comparison to the previous year.

Overview of Perplexity AI

• Launch: August 2022
• Founders: Andy Konwinski, Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho.
• Genre: Search engine
• Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Website: www.perplexity.ai

How Many People Use Perplexity AI?

According to the recent data shared by Semrush, Perplexity AI has an average of 10 million active users per month. The site served around 500 million search queries per year and in September 2024, it received a total of 102 million visits, a 24.4% increase from August 2024. As a whole, this gives Perplexity a global rank of 527.

Here’s the total visits Perplexity received in the last 3 months:

• July: 74.55 m
• August: 82.1 m
• September: 102.13 m

Perplexity AI Geographic Distribution

Perplexity AI’s core audience is located in the United States (16.39%), closely followed by India (6.98%) and Indonesia (6.02%). Here’s a complete breakdown of traffic by country:

• United States: 16.39%
• India: 6.98%
• Indonesia: 6.02%
• Japan: 5.77%
• Kenya: 4.34%
• Other: 60.5%

(source)

Perplexity AI Users By Age Group

The vast majority of Perplexity AI users are aged 25 to 34 years old, leading the group with 33.47%. These are followed by 18 to 24 year old adults, with a total of 23.22% of users accessing the platform.

Here’s a detailed showcase of the survey’s results:

• 18-24: 23.22%
• 25-34: 33.47%
• 35-44: 19.54%
• 45-54: 12.74%
• 55-64: 6.87%
• +65: 4.17%

Perplexity AI Users By Genre

Surveys suggest that there’s a slight average of male Perplexity AI users (56.59%) over female ones (43.31%). However, the difference in gender distribution is not high nor noteworthy.

Perplexity AI User Engagement

As stated above, Perplexity AI received 102.13 m visits with an average session duration of 9 minutes and 4 seconds. During that time, Perplexity AI users visit an average of 3.22 pages, with a bounce rate of 44.75%.

This data is very relevant if we compare it to other competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude or Google’s Gemini. As seen by the numbers, Perplexity leads the group in average user engagement time:

Average time spent:

• ChatGPT: 7 mins 48 sec
• Gemini AI: 6 mins 52 sec
• Perplexity AI: 9 mins 4 sec
• Claude AI: 5 mins 26 sec
• Microsoft Copilot: 5 mins 12 sec
• Brave Leo AI: 7 mins 32 secs
• GitHub Copilot: 6 mins 14 sec

Perplexity AI Traffic

Most of Perplexity AI’s traffic is direct (68.36%) or generated by organic search (27.07%). A little part of it is generated through social media, referrals or emails, but among them they barely reach 4.56%.

Here’s a complete list of the top channels generating traffic for Perplexity AI:

• Direct: 68.36%
• Organic: 27,07%
• Social: 2.66%
• Referrals: 1.22%
• Email: 0.68%
• Display ads: 0.01%

(source)

Perplexity AI Traffic by Device

As the recent surveys show, desktop is the preferred device among Perplexity AI users. Among them, 73.29% prefer to access the platform through a desktop device, while 26.71% opt for mobile.

• Desktop: 77.67%
• Mobile: 22.33%

If we delve deeper into this data, we find out that the leading country with Perplexity AI visitors, the US, accesses the platform mostly through desktop (88.78%) with only 11.22% using a mobile device.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how the top countries access Perplexity AI:

• United States: Desktop- 88.78%, Mobile- 11,22%
• India: Desktop- 69.54%, Mobile- 30.46%
• Indonesia: Desktop- 47.77%, Mobile- 52.23%
• Japan: Desktop- 96.51%, Mobile- 3.49%
• Kenya: Desktop- 95.22%, Mobile- 4.78%

Perplexity AI Revenue

With the booming market of generative AI, Perplexity AI’s revenue has grown significantly during the past years. The platform saw a 60% increase from 2022 to 2023, generating a total of $24 million in revenue.

• 2022- $15 million
• 2023- $24 million
• 2024*- $40 million

*estimated

Perplexity AI Valuation and Funding Statistics

As of January 2024, Perplexity AI has been valued approximately at $520 million. The platform is currently in discussion to raise another funding round of $1 billion. Among its most prominent inventors we find SoftBank, Jeff Bezos, Nvidia and Y Combinator.

The exponential growth of the platform’s funding history showcases a trajectory of increased confidence by investors, which foresees a good future for the AI search engine.

• 2022: Valuation- $100 m, Funding- $25 m
• 2023: Valuation- $250 m, Funding- $50 m
• 2024*: Valuation- $500 m, Funding- $200 m

(source)

Perplexity AI Share in the AI Search Engine Sector

Perplexity AI has a 3.1% of the market share in the AI search engine sector as of July 2024. In the overall ranking, it holds the 4th position behind ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. While Perplexity is not in the top 3 AI platforms, it definitely has contributed to the fragmentation of the AI search market and taken share from the top contenders.

• ChatGPT: 61.3%
• Microsoft Copilot: 15.6%
• Google Gemini: 13.3%
• Perplexity AI: 3.1%
• Claude AI: 2.5%
• Brave Leo AI: 1.4%
• Komo: 0.7%
• Other: 2.1%

Conclusion: Perplexity AI Will Keep Growing At An Excellent Rate

Perplexity AI poses as a revolution to the search engine industry. Holding a valuation of $520 in just 2 years and over 67 million total visits, the platform is a strong contender in the generative AI industry. With millions of users praising its unbiased results, Perplexity AI has become one of the most trusted search engines in the market, gaining the trust of investors as known as Amazon’s mogul, Jeff Bezos. 

With its advanced language models and real-time web crawling capabilities, Perplexity AI fulfills all the requirements of students, researchers and businesses alike. While still in its early stages, Perplexity AI will surely rapidly evolve and redefine the search experience of millions of users, becoming a strong contender in the booming AI landscape.