I spent some hands-on time with Perplexity’s new Comet browser to see how its built-in AI features feel in real-world browsing. Here’s what stood out from my first test drive.
First impressions and setup
Comet ships with a dark-themed interface and, at first glance, looks very familiar. That’s because under the hood it’s Chromium with a Comet skin. You’ll notice Chrome-like settings throughout, including things like Memory Saver, and the About page confirms it’s built on Chromium alongside other open-source components. Access is invite-only for now, so you’ll need to request an invite from the Perplexity website.
The built-in assistant: summarize any page and ask follow-ups
One of Comet’s standout tricks is an assistant that can summarize the page you’re on with a single click—no prompt required. I tested it on the Advertise Me website, and it instantly provided a concise overview of the company. From there, I asked follow-up questions like “Give me the phone number,” and it pulled the number directly from the page. It’s a smooth way to understand a site at a glance and then drill down without bouncing between tabs.
You can also connect your Gmail account so the assistant can surface email information on request. If you live in your inbox, having that context available inside the browser could be a time-saver.
Talk to your browser with Voice Mode
Comet includes a Voice Mode that feels similar to Gemini Live and ChatGPT Voice. I asked it what the current website was about, and it responded with a clear, accurate summary: Advertise Me (Sydney, Australia) specializing in digital signage, wayfinding, social walls, video walls, mobile apps, and custom interactive web solutions—covering both hardware and software.
Homepage, Discover, and Spaces
Beyond the assistant, Comet is a full-featured browser. You can open new tabs, tweak settings, and save pages into categories from the homepage. There’s also a Discover section that surfaces trending articles by topic (like Tech and Finance) to help you find something interesting fast.
“Spaces” are prebuilt prompts and workflows you can spin up quickly. I tried a simple travel planning prompt—“I’m going to Canada next week; provide me with vegan restaurants”—and it returned a handful of options in Toronto. You can enable voice here, too, and even choose the underlying model powering the responses.
In the model picker, I saw options labeled Sonar, Claude, Gemini Pro, “GPT 5,” and “GPI Thinking,” among others; Comet can auto-select what it deems best for the task. I tested on the free tier, but there are paid plans (Pro/Max) that unlock more features.
Plans and upgrades
On the upgrade screen, Pro is listed at $20 USD/month and mentions perks like choosing different models, video generation, image generation, Perplexity Research, and unlimited file and photo uploads. If you expect to lean heavily on AI workflows in your browser, those additions might be worth it; otherwise, the free version is a good way to get a feel for Comet.
Final thoughts (and invites)
For a first outing, Comet feels promising: the page summarizer and follow-up Q&A are genuinely useful, Voice Mode is responsive, and Spaces make jumping into common tasks quick. It’s still early days, but the Chromium foundation keeps it familiar while the AI features add practical superpowers.
Comet is invite-only at the moment. I don’t have many invites left, but if you want to try it, let me know and I’ll send one if I can. See you next time!
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