The AI and browser spaces are converging—and Perplexity, the AI search company, is making a bold move. In September 2025, Perplexity rolled out its new browser, Comet, for Windows and macOS users in India as part of its Pro subscription offering. This marks a significant push into the Indian market and signals Perplexity’s ambition to disrupt not just search, but how users interact with the web itself.
Comet isn’t just another web browser; it is an AI-powered assistant and agentic browser built on a Chromium base, offering features like summarization, workflow automation, smart multitasking, contextual memory, and more. In many ways, it’s positioning itself as a “thinking partner” rather than a passive tool.
In this article, we explore the full story: the background of Perplexity, what Comet brings to the table, its India launch details, feature deep dives, advantages and challenges, security and privacy considerations, market impact, and what the future might hold. Let’s dig in.
Background: Perplexity AI and Its Journey
To understand what Comet means, we first need to look at Perplexity’s evolution.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity AI is an AI search company, founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. Their core product is an AI-driven answer engine: users ask queries, and the system synthesizes answers from the web, often with citations to sources, rather than returning lists of links. The idea is to combine real-time web search with conversational AI capabilities.
Over time, Perplexity introduced a tiered subscription model (Pro, Max, etc.) offering access to stronger models, better features, and more advanced usage.
By mid-2025, Perplexity was valued at around US$18 billion after funding rounds and rapid user growth. But the team saw a bigger opportunity: embedding AI more deeply into the browsing experience itself.
Thus, the development of Comet, a browser that marries web rendering, user interface, and AI agentic capabilities, became a strategic next step.
What is Comet? A New Breed of Browser
Comet is not just a browser with an AI plugin: it’s designed from the ground up as AI-infused browser + agentic assistant + context keeper. The official site and early reviews portray it as a thinking partner.
Here are its core ideas:
- Chromium base: Comet is built atop the open-source Chromium engine, ensuring compatibility with existing web standards, Chrome/Edge extensions, bookmarks, etc.
- Active AI sidebar / assistant: Instead of just offering search suggestions, Comet continuously monitors context. It can summarize pages, follow multi-step tasks, automate actions, and act as a mini agent across tabs.
- Task orchestration & “agentic actions”: Users can instruct Comet to perform tasks like comparing product prices on different sites, booking meetings, summarizing articles into email drafts, or even completing checkouts (if authorized).
- Context memory & workspace: Unlike a typical tabbed browser, Comet aims to preserve project context: what you’ve read, what you’re working on, what you were comparing earlier. It can reference past states, helping reduce tab clutter and lost context.
- Local, encrypted processing of activity / data: Comet is designed so that browsing history, AI interactions, and credentials are stored locally and encrypted by default, minimizing server-side data exposure.
- Integration with password managers / security layers: Perplexity has formed a partnership with 1Password to bring credential security to Comet — end-to-end encryption, autofill of credentials, and local storage.
- Multi-platform ambitions: At launch, Comet supports Windows and macOS. Mobile versions (Android) are in pre-order; iOS support is anticipated later.
- Agentic vs passive AI: Comet aims to go beyond passive AI (just answering queries) to agentic AI (taking actions on your behalf). This is a more ambitious vision, but also more complex in design and risk.
In short: Comet is trying to merge the browser, the AI assistant, and workflow automation into one seamless experience.
India Launch: Why It Matters
India is central to Comet’s growth strategy. Here’s how and why the India launch is significant:
Timeline & Access
- Comet was globally introduced in July 2025.
- On September 22, 2025, Perplexity made Comet available to Pro subscribers in India (initially available to Max plan users earlier).
- At first, it was limited to Windows and Mac users. Android users can pre-order; iOS support is pending.
- Some media reports note a proviso: it’s currently available only for paying subscribers (Pro or Max).
Strategic Moves in India
- Large internet base: India has among the largest populations of internet users globally. Launching in India gives Comet access to a hefty potential user base.
- Tie-up with Airtel: To accelerate adoption, Perplexity struck a deal with Bharti Airtel. This gives millions of Airtel customers complimentary access to Perplexity Pro for a year (and therefore access to Comet).
- Local investment / hiring: The company is reportedly looking to hire in India and expand operations, indicating long-term commitment.
- Pricing / cost structure: The Perplexity Pro subscription is reportedly priced at ₹17,000 per year in India. Some versions of Airtel / partner deals may offset this cost for users.
- Incremental rollout: Starting with Pro users is a cautious approach: test adoption, gather feedback, and then expand.
In sum, India is a testbed and an opportunity—a balancing act between bold AI ambitions and careful rollout.
Feature Deep Dive
Let’s explore some of the most compelling (and potentially risky) features of Comet.
Summarization & Reading Assistance
One of Comet’s strengths is on-the-fly summarization: convert long articles, studies, or reports into concise summaries. It can also pull insights or highlights based on user prompts. This is especially useful for researchers, students, professionals trying to skim quickly.
Comet’s AI can also take excerpts from multiple tabs (related ones) and summarize in a unified view. This reduces the need to manually hop between tabs and piece together information.
Task Automation & Agentic Behavior
Comet enables agentic tasks — you can instruct it like “compare the best price for X across sites,” “summarize this webpage into an email draft,” or “find relevant academic papers about Y.” It can then execute parts of those tasks. It is able to act across tabs, maintaining context, executing multi-step flows, and picking up where you left off.
Importantly, the user must authorize certain actions (like checkouts or form fills), ensuring some control.
Context Memory & Workspace Concept
Instead of thinking in isolated tabs, Comet embodies the concept of workspace or project context. It “remembers” what you’ve read, what you were exploring, what comparisons you made, and suggests relevant content or nudges. Tabs aren’t just pages—they are part of an ongoing narrative.
This helps reduce “tab sprawl” and ensures context doesn’t get lost. You can ask questions like “where did I see that earlier study about X?” and Comet may track it down.
AI Assistant in Sidebar
A persistent sidebar houses the AI assistant. It can be invoked to help, ask to refine searches, summarize content, or pick up tasks. Because it’s always available, it transforms how users interact with the web—rather than switching to separate “AI chat apps,” the assistant stays in the browser.
Integration with Email & Productivity Tools
Comet aims to blend web browsing with productivity. Features include:
- Email summarization and drafting: cursor-based guidance to convert web content into email drafts.
- Meeting scheduling & calendar integration: the AI agent can help book meetings from within the browser context.
- Reading, PDF analysis, translation, and context-aware hints (e.g. “You read something similar earlier—do you want that?”).
- Tab-specific context features: with an @tab syntax, you can ask the assistant to reference or compare content across open tabs.
Security, Privacy & Local Storage
To build trust, Comet comes with built-in privacy and security design principles:
- Data (history, AI interactions, etc.) is stored locally and encrypted by default, minimizing server-side exposure.
- The browser doesn’t automatically send user data to Perplexity servers without explicit permission.
- Integration with credential systems: the partnership with 1Password allows secure handling of autofills, passwords, two-factor codes, and encrypted storage.
- End-to-end encryption for credentials and passkeys.
Extension / Compatibility
Because Comet is built on Chromium, users can import existing data—bookmarks, extensions, themes—from Chrome or Edge, easing migration. This reduces friction and allows users not to lose their familiar setups.
Strengths & Advantages
Comet introduces several compelling advantages over traditional browsers:
Integrated AI experience
No more switching between search apps, chatbots, or productivity tools—the AI lives in your browsing experience, context aware and proactive.
Productivity & workflow focus
Comet reduces fragmentation: summarizing, tab management, cross-tab actions, and task delegation help users stay in flow rather than bouncing around.
Personalization & contextual memory
The system’s ability to adapt and remember user context is more advanced than static search or browser history.
Reduced cognitive load & tab sprawl
The workspace approach helps prevent losing track of things, reduces clutter, and helps users manage complex tasks more smoothly.
Local data control & encryption
By design, user data stays local (unless user chooses otherwise), which can assuage privacy concerns compared to cloud-based AI tools.
Seamless migration
The ability to import extensions, bookmarks, and settings lowers the barrier for new users to adopt Comet.
Partnered security measures
The 1Password integration adds a strong layer of credential protection, which is essential for a browser that might autocomplete forms or initiate checkouts.
First-mover advantage in India
Launching in India early gives Comet a chance to capture attention in a swiftly growing market and leverage partnerships (like with Airtel) to accelerate adoption.
Challenges, Risks & Criticisms
No visionary product is without potential pitfalls. Comet has received its share of scrutiny and caution flags, especially around security, user trust, regulatory issues, and AI behavior.
Security vulnerabilities & adversarial risks
One of the biggest criticisms comes from independent audits by security firms like Brave and Guardio. These audits uncovered serious vulnerabilities in Comet’s AI handling of webpage content, raising concerns such as:
- Malicious content injection: Because Comet routes webpage content into its LLM for summarization, attackers might embed malicious instructions in pages that the AI then executes (indirect prompt injection).
- Automated execution of harmful tasks: In audit tests, Comet was reported to have made fake purchases from malicious sites or assisted users in phishing flows—tasks a human user might spot but Comet executed obliviously.
- Bypassing standard security checks: The AI agent model may bypass browser-level warnings or override human judgment, reducing your ability to detect scams.
- Overtrust / remove human in loop: Because decisions are delegated to the AI, the human user might miss cues or red flags. As one audit put it: “human intuition to evade harm is excluded from the process.”
These findings raise serious red flags for a browser marketed on security and AI control. The risk of letting AI “click, type, submit” tasks unchecked is potentially problematic.
Privacy & data concerns
- Even though Comet stores data locally by default, any optional features that send data or logs to servers must be scrutinized for transparency, opt-in defaults, and data handling policies.
- Perplexity has faced legal scrutiny over content usage and web scraping practices (e.g., scraping news sites). Some of that scrutiny may carry over to how Comet sources and displays content.
Subscription/paywall model
- Unlike free browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox), Comet is currently locked behind Pro / Max paid tiers. That restricts adoption and adds pressure on value delivery.
- Users may resist paying for features many consider part of the baseline browser experience.
Learning curve & trust
- Users may resist letting a browser act autonomously. Trust must be built gradually.
- Mistakes or errors early on—e.g. misinterpreting tasks—can damage credibility.
- Some features might not always work flawlessly; AI hallucination or missteps are possible.
Regulatory, publisher & ecosystem resistance
- Publishers may object to AI summarization or content reuse, echoing debates around AI content scraping.
- Browser / search incumbents (Google, Microsoft) may respond with countermeasures or integrate similar smart assistant features.
- Regulatory frameworks—especially in India or the EU—might impose constraints on AI automation, browser agents, or privacy norms.
How Comet Compares to Existing Alternatives
Comet is entering a competitive space where incumbents are not sitting idle.
- Chrome + extensions / plugins: Users today often enhance Chrome with AI chat, summarization, or assistant plugins. Comet integrates all into one package rather than layering on.
- Edge / Brave with Copilot/AI features: Microsoft Edge already integrates AI-assisted browsing (Copilot mode). Comet’s differentiation is deeper agentic behaviour and context memory.
- AI assistants / chat apps: Many users juggle ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini alongside their browser. Comet aims to unify those functions.
- Other AI browsers / startups: Some startups are experimenting with smart browsing agents. But Comet’s backing and ambitions give it notable clout.
Its success hinges on user trust, seamless experience, security, and staying ahead in AI capabilities.
Impact & Market Implications in India
Comet’s rollout in India could reshape how millions browse, research, and interact with the web. Key potential impacts:
- Productivity boost for professionals / students: In India’s competitive academic and corporate sectors, tools that reduce friction in research, summarization, and multitasking are highly attractive.
- Shift in browsing behavior: If successful, users may transition from passive tab-based browsing to agentic, context-driven workflows.
- Partner-driven adoption: The Airtel tie-up is strategic. Telecoms bundling Comet gives it reach; such bundling could replicate in other markets.
- Competitive pressure on browser / search giants: Google, Microsoft, and others might accelerate their intelligent assistant features to compete.
- Regulatory & publisher reaction: Indian media outlets and regulators may scrutinize content summarization or AI automation. Compliance with privacy laws and content rights will be crucial.
- User expectations change: As users get used to AI-driven browsing, expectations for “just works” intelligent features will rise, pushing all browser makers to innovate.
If executed well, Comet could become a staple for power users in India.
Limitations and What We Don’t Yet Know
While Comet’s vision is impressive, several uncertainties remain:
- Stability & bug handling: As a new product, early versions may have bugs or performance issues.
- Extent of agentic actions: How reliably will it manage complex flows like purchases, form fills, or calendar invites?
- Edge-case behavior: How will it handle ambiguous user instructions, conflicting tasks, or contradictory contexts?
- Mobile rollout success: Most users browse on mobile. The pace and quality of Android / iOS launches matter.
- Monetization & pricing evolution: Will Comet always be subscription-based, or will some features become free tiers?
- User adoption and churn: Will early users stick, or revert to old habits if missteps occur?
- Regulation & policy tug-of-war: Especially in India, compliance with data, AI oversight, and content rights will matter—a misstep could provoke backlash.
How to Get It & Try It (for Indian Users)
For readers in India interested in experiencing Comet, here’s what to know:
- Subscription requirement: You need to be a Pro or Max Perplexity subscriber to access Comet in India.
- Platforms supported at launch: Windows and macOS currently. Android is available for pre-order. iOS is expected later.
- Download / installation: Visit Perplexity’s Comet page or link via the Pro dashboard to download installers. (
- Migration: Import your Chrome/Edge bookmarks, extensions, passwords to ease transition.
- Use cases to try:
- Summarizing long reports or articles
- Automated comparisons across sites
- Drafting emails from web content
- Scheduling meetings from browser context
- Asking contextual follow-ups referencing earlier tabs
- Security caution: Start with non-critical tasks and monitor behavior. Avoid authorizing high-risk flows until you’re comfortable.
- Feedback & updates: Provide feedback to the Comet development team. Early user feedback likely to influence roadmap.
Verdict & Outlook
Comet is a bold step—a bet that the future of the web lies not in static pages and search results, but in intelligent, context-aware agents that assist, remember, and act.
In India, the launch of Comet for Pro users, combined with strategic partnerships (like Airtel), gives it a runway to gain traction among power users, students, professionals, and researchers. If it executes well, it could shift user expectations of what a browser should do.
However, the challenges are steep. Security vulnerabilities unveiled by independent audits show the dangers of ceding control to AI agents. Trust must be earned, not assumed. Privacy, regulation, performance, UX, and adoption will all decide whether Comet becomes a transformative product or a niche tool.
If Comet can refine its guardrails, maintain transparency, evolve gracefully, and avoid critical AI missteps, it has a shot at setting a new paradigm for intelligent browsing. India may well be the proving ground.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who can use Comet in India right now?
At present, only Pro / Max subscribers of Perplexity in India can access Comet on Windows and macOS. Android users can pre-order. iOS support expected later.
Q2. How much does the Pro subscription cost in India?
It is reported at ₹17,000 per year. However, promotional or bundled deals (e.g. via Airtel) may reduce or waive that cost for eligible users.
Q3. Does Comet compromise my browser extensions or bookmarks?
No — Comet supports importing extensions, bookmarks, and settings from Chrome/Edge because it’s built on Chromium.
Q4. Can Comet perform actions like checkout automatically?
Yes—subject to authorization, Comet can carry out agentic tasks like comparing prices and checking out. But you must grant permission for such actions.
Q5. Is Comet safe & private?
Comet stores data locally and uses encryption by default. It integrates with 1Password for credential security. However, independent audits have flagged security risks in how Comet processes webpage content via its AI. Users should proceed cautiously.
Q6. Will Comet come to mobile?
Yes — Android version is available for pre-order, and iOS support is anticipated, though release timetables are uncertain.
Q7. Why did Perplexity choose India for launch?
India has a massive, digitally active user base, making it an ideal growth market. The Airtel partnership helps accelerate adoption.
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