⚠️ Perplexity Pro: Key Disadvantages
While Perplexity Pro offers advanced AI search capabilities, users should be aware of these important limitations
🔍 Over-Complicated Simple Searches
Perplexity provides excessive information when users just want basic website links, turning simple searches into lengthy summaries with unwanted features and benefits.
🔒 Source Limitation & Vendor Lock-In
The platform appears limited to collaborating sites, with pricing information often coming from only select vendors like Best Buy rather than comprehensive market coverage.
⚠️ Accuracy Verification Required
Users must manually check all sources to verify accuracy, as responses can be repetitive and the platform is vulnerable to hallucinations from third-party LLMs.
🛡️ Security Vulnerabilities
Security loopholes have been identified, particularly with uploaded images, despite having solid security measures on paper.
💰 Expensive Business Pricing
The platform’s business pricing is expensive compared to market alternatives, making it less accessible for enterprise adoption.
🔗 Limited Source Discovery
The platform sometimes cannot find all sources and may only link to homepage sources rather than specific relevant content.
The Real Cost Behind AI-Powered Research
Perplexity Pro promises to revolutionize how content creators and professionals conduct research with its AI-powered answer engine. Priced at ₹1,999 per month (₹17,000 annually), this premium subscription offers access to advanced AI models, unlimited searches, and sophisticated research capabilities. However, beneath the polished interface and marketing claims lie significant concerns that every potential subscriber should understand before making the investment.
Understanding Perplexity’s Premium Promise
📌 What You Get with Pro
Perplexity Pro subscribers receive substantial upgrades over the free version. The premium tier provides unlimited Pro searches compared to just five enhanced queries daily on the free plan. Users gain access to multiple AI models including GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Perplexity’s proprietary models like R1 and Sonar.
The subscription includes advanced features like image generation, unlimited file uploads and analysis, access to Perplexity Labs for project creation, and priority customer support through Discord and Intercom with promised 1-2 business day response times. Enterprise features like Spaces for team collaboration and internal knowledge search round out the offering.
For Indian users, there’s a notable pricing advantage through partnerships. Airtel customers currently receive a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription worth ₹17,000, making it accessible to millions of users across the country.
The Plagiarism Problem That Won’t Go Away
⛔️ Content Integrity Issues
Perplexity faces ongoing accusations of content plagiarism from major publications including Forbes, Wired, and Bloomberg. Investigations have revealed instances where the platform reproduced articles almost verbatim without proper attribution, particularly through its Perplexity Pages feature.
The company has been caught using “stealth crawlers” that ignore robots.txt files—the standard protocol websites use to block unauthorized scraping. Cloudflare reported that Perplexity modifies user agents and changes IP addresses to circumvent website restrictions, essentially stealing content that publishers explicitly blocked.
These practices raise serious ethical concerns for content creators who rely on original, properly sourced information. When your research tool is itself accused of plagiarism, it compromises the integrity of any content you create using its outputs.
Accuracy Concerns and Hallucination Issues
⛔️ The Reliability Problem
Despite marketing claims about superior accuracy through real-time web browsing, Perplexity exhibits significant hallucination issues. The platform’s R1 model, used for deep research, has a hallucination rate of approximately 14%—nearly 18 times higher than competing models like OpenAI’s o3 mini.
Independent testing by GPTZero revealed that Perplexity increasingly cites AI-generated sources as factual references. In several documented cases, the platform provided information about permanently closed businesses, non-existent events, and fabricated statistics while presenting them as verified facts.
For content creators who depend on accurate information, these reliability issues pose significant risks to credibility and professional reputation. Publishing content based on hallucinated or inaccurate data can damage your brand and mislead your audience.
Technical Limitations That Impact Workflow
👉 Mobile App Problems
The Android app suffers from critical functionality issues that make it nearly unusable for professional work. Users report that the app frequently bugs out when switching between applications or when the screen turns off, causing research queries to fail or never complete.
Unlike the desktop version that can run searches in the background, the mobile app requires constant attention, making it impractical for multitasking. The iOS app reportedly performs better but still lacks the stability of the web interface.
Security vulnerabilities add another layer of concern. Mobile security testing revealed that the app lacks SSL pinning, making it susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. Network configuration issues further expose users to potential security breaches.
Customer Support Reality Check
⛔️ Support System Failures
Despite promises of priority support for Pro subscribers, user experiences tell a different story. Multiple reports indicate response times extending weeks rather than the advertised 1-2 business days. The support team acknowledges operating with limited staff during PST business hours only.
One user reported waiting over three weeks for a response to a pricing inquiry, eventually receiving contradictory information. Pro subscribers have complained about unresolved technical issues despite multiple follow-ups and the supposed priority status of their accounts.
The Discord community support, while more responsive, cannot resolve account-specific or billing issues, forcing users to rely on the problematic email support system.
Privacy and Data Security Concerns
⛔️ Your Data at Risk
Perplexity’s data collection practices raise significant privacy concerns. The platform collects web search history, IP addresses, device information, and location data. Unlike more privacy-focused alternatives, it lacks end-to-end encryption or robust anonymous search options.
The upcoming Comet browser represents an even greater privacy risk. According to Perplexity’s own disclosures, Comet can access all data in your Google Account, including emails, contacts, and stored files. It tracks URLs visited, page content, downloads, cookies, and browsing behavior.
Personal Search features use your browsing history to train and improve Perplexity’s AI models by default. Users must actively opt out to prevent their data from being used for model training, something most users never do.
Cost-Benefit Analysis for Indian Creators
💰 The Financial Reality
At ₹1,999 monthly or ₹17,000 annually, Perplexity Pro represents a significant investment for Indian content creators. This cost equals approximately:
- Two months of quality web hosting
- Premium subscriptions to multiple specialized tools
- Several months of Adobe Creative Cloud
- A basic smartphone or computer upgrade
For creators just starting out or those with limited budgets, these costs can be prohibitive, especially when free alternatives like Google search, ChatGPT’s basic tier, or Claude provide comparable functionality for many use cases.
The Competition Landscape
✅ Better Alternatives Available
ChatGPT Plus at ₹1,731 monthly offers more stable performance, better creative capabilities, and superior customer support. While it lacks real-time browsing by default, it provides more reliable information processing and fewer hallucination issues.
Google’s Gemini Pro and Anthropic’s Claude Pro offer competitive features at similar price points but with better accuracy records and more transparent data practices. Many specialized research tools provide superior functionality for specific use cases at lower costs.
For basic research needs, the free versions of multiple AI tools combined often provide better value than a single expensive subscription with significant limitations.
Making the Smart Choice for Your Workflow
The decision to subscribe to Perplexity Pro shouldn’t be based solely on marketing promises or feature lists. Consider your actual research needs, budget constraints, and tolerance for the documented issues.
If you primarily need basic research capabilities, creative assistance, or reliable information processing, free alternatives or more established paid options may serve you better. The plagiarism controversies, accuracy concerns, and support issues make Perplexity Pro a risky investment for professionals who depend on reliable, ethically sourced information.
For those who do choose to proceed, maintain awareness of the platform’s limitations, verify all information through independent sources, and have backup research methods ready when technical issues inevitably arise.
Remember that the most expensive tool isn’t always the best tool. Your research workflow should prioritize accuracy, reliability, and ethical sourcing over flashy features and marketing claims. Choose wisely, and your content quality will reflect that decision.
