Perplexity has announced that their AI browser, Comet will be available to everyone for free. Their new subscription tier called Comet Plus unveiled back in August will be available to all free Comet users for $5 per month and for free to Pro and Max users. 

Poised to be an alternative to Apple News, Comet Plus has added publishers including CNN, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Le Monde and Le Figaro as inaugural partners.

The AI startup also announced a new feature called Background Assistant that can access multiple apps and work on tasks while the user is away. 

Comet was initially launched in July for $200 per month to Perplexity Max subscribers. Company CEO Aravind Srinivas noted in his announcement that the “waitlist of 460,000 users quickly grew to millions.” 

The AI browser is able to search the web, write emails and summarise content. 

The segment for AI browsers is becoming hotly contested which could have spurred Perplexity’s decision. 

A few days ago, Opera launched an AI-powered browser called Neon that can run code and perform tasks. 

OpenAI is also expected to launch their AI browser as previously announced.