G1Joshi Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI search engine. For developers, the Sonar API provides grounded, cited answers for building search-enabled apps.
When to Use
- Real-time Info: "What is the stock price of Apple?" (LLMs can't answer this without tools).
- Research Apps: Building an app that needs to cite sources.
- Citations: You need reliability and links to original data.
Core Concepts
Sonar API
API access to Perplexity's online models (llama-3-sonar-large-32k-online).
Citations
API returns a list of citations used to generate the answer.
Pro Search
Multi-step reasoning search (Googles multiple times to answer complex queries).
Best Practices (2025)
Do:
- Use for Grounding: If your chatbot needs current events, route those queries to Perplexity.
- Use Search Options: Filter by domain (e.g., search only
reddit.comorstackoverflow.com).
Don't:
- Don't use for creative writing: It is optimized for facts, not fiction.