Perplexity launches $5 monthly Comet Plus sharing 80% revenue with publishers

Perplexity has launched Comet Plus, a new $5 monthly subscription that shares revenue with publishers when AI agents use their content to answer questions. The initiative addresses growing concerns about AI companies using publisher content without fair compensation, offering an 80% revenue split to participating publications.

What you should know: Comet Plus represents a new approach to compensating publishers for AI-driven content usage beyond traditional web traffic.

• Publishers will receive 80% of the $5 monthly subscription fee, with the remaining 20% allocated to computing costs.
• The subscription gives users access to premium content from a group of trusted publishers and journalists through Perplexity’s AI assistants.
• Perplexity will initially fund the program with a $42.5 million revenue pool that will expand as subscriptions grow.

How it works: The new model specifically addresses “agent traffic” that existing publisher deals don’t cover.

• When you ask Perplexity to synthesize recent coverage of an industry trend, that’s indexed traffic, but when Comet Assistant scans your calendar and suggests articles relevant to your day’s meetings, that’s agent traffic.
• The revenue sharing accounts for content accessed when AI agents visit webpages on users’ behalf, bypassing ads that would normally generate revenue for publishers.
• Existing Pro and Max subscribers will automatically receive Comet Plus as part of their subscriptions.

The big picture: Traditional publisher compensation models struggle to account for AI agent behavior that circumvents normal web browsing patterns.

• Perplexity’s existing Publisher Program, which includes TIME and Fortune, shares ad revenue based on traffic that search summaries redirect away from original articles.
• Most newspapers charge $20-$30 monthly for full access to their content libraries, raising questions about whether $4 per publisher (80% of $5) provides adequate compensation.

Why this matters: The plan emerges amid ongoing tensions between AI companies and content creators over fair compensation for training data and content usage.

• Perplexity has previously faced criticism for allegedly plagiarizing articles without proper attribution.
• The success of agentic browsing tools like Comet depends on publisher participation and cooperation.

What remains unclear: Key details about the program’s implementation and relationship to existing agreements are still unknown.

• It’s uncertain whether Comet Plus will replace Perplexity’s existing Publisher Program or operate alongside it.
• The impact on response quality for users who don’t subscribe to Comet Plus hasn’t been disclosed.