Perplexity Pro vs Max: Price, Credits, and What Each Plan Includes

Perplexity prices its two paid plans as annual rates on its pricing page: Pro is “$17” a month “when billed annually” and Max is “$167” a month “when billed annually,” which by our arithmetic is $204 and $2,004 a year. The page does not show a month-to-month price. What separates the tiers is less the search than the Computer agent and its credits: Max starts with “10,000 monthly credits,” Pro starts with none and instead gets a weekly allowance of Computer usage, and both get a one-time bonus that expires in 30 days. A verified student or educator can get Pro for $10. This guide sets out the plans, the credit rules and the contradictions on Perplexity’s own pages, read October 9, 2026. For Perplexity against ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, see our AI plans comparison.

The quick answer

Free: $0, for limited daily usage with citations in every answer and basic AI models; the help center describes practically unlimited basic searches but very few Pro Searches
Pro: “$17” a month “when billed annually” ($204 a year by our math), with the top AI models and a choice between them, deep research, expanded Computer access, “4,000 bonus credits,” and 10x the free limits on web answers, uploads and asset generation
Max: “$167” a month “when billed annually” ($2,004 a year), with frontier AI models, maximum Computer usage, “10,000 monthly credits,” “35,000 bonus credits,” Brain, priority access to new features, and 5x video generation
Education Pro: ”($10/mo with verification from SheerID),” with everything in Pro
Credits: “Today, 100 credits equals $1.” Max’s 10,000 monthly credits are $100 of Computer work inside the $167 price, by our math
Pro’s weekly allowance: “Paid Consumer Pro plans now include a weekly amount of Computer usage,” which “does not roll over” and is “not included with promotional or non-paying Pro plans, Max plans, or Enterprise plans”

Key facts at a glance

	Free	Pro	Max
Price on the pricing page	$0	$17 a month, billed annually	$167 a month, billed annually
Annual total (our math)	$0	$204	$2,004
Models	”Access to basic AI models"	"Access to top AI models,” preferred model selection	”Frontier AI models,” advanced reasoning models
Web answers, uploads, asset generation	”Limited"	"10x"	"10x”
Video generation	Not included	Included (limited)	“5x”
Computer credits	None	No monthly allocation; weekly included usage; 4,000 one-time bonus	10,000 a month; 35,000 one-time bonus
Brain, Model Council	No	Model Council yes; Brain no	Both
Support	Standard	Exclusive support channels	Priority support

Prices and the feature grid from Perplexity’s pricing page; credit and allowance rules from the credits article; plan contents from the Pro, Max and plan-comparison help articles. All read October 9, 2026.

The prices, and the one that is not shown

The pricing page opens with “One plan for the most accurate answers, powered by all the top AI models.” and lists three individual columns. Free is “$0” “/month.” Pro, marked “Popular,” is “$17” “/month” “when billed annually,” with the tagline “Better answers. More answers. Built for serious work.” Max is “$167” “/month” “when billed annually,” with “No limits on scale, built for the hardest problems.”

Read literally, those are annual plans: $204 and $2,004 a year, by our arithmetic. The page gives no month-to-month figure for either tier, and the Max help article’s billing questions were collapsed on the page as read. Anyone comparing Perplexity with ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, which publish $20 monthly rates, is comparing an annual rate with a monthly one unless they check the checkout screen. The plan comparison article adds one more price: “Education Pro” at ”($10/mo with verification from SheerID),” and for teams “Per-seat pricing (starts at $40/month or $400/year/seat).”

Free: searches without the premium models

The comparison article describes the free Standard plan as practically unlimited basic searches, a very limited number of Pro Searches, Perplexity choosing the model for each query, limited file uploads, and “No access to advanced AI models, image generation, or premium support.” The pricing grid marks web answers, file uploads and asset generation as “Limited,” and the FAQ says “Free includes access to the top AI models with limited weekly usage.”

Pro: the models, 10x the limits, and a weekly Computer allowance

The Pro article calls Pro “our premium subscription plan, designed to enhance your search experience with advanced features and capabilities.” Its list: “10x as many citations per answer,” access to Create files and apps, more uploads, extended access to Perplexity Research, enhanced image generation, limited video generation, and “One subscription includes all our latest and most powerful AI models, such as GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro.” One caveat sits in the models section: “For Advanced AI model queries, access may be limited during weeks of especially heavy usage.” The comparison article adds “Limited amount Create files and apps queries every 30 days” and “Up to 50 file uploads per project.”

The pricing FAQ summarizes the step up as raising every limit and adding Perplexity Computer, premium data sources such as PitchBook and Statista, search across the web, files and apps, Model Council, and a preferred model per query. In the grid, Pro’s web answers, uploads and asset generation are “10x” the free tier.

The Computer side is where Pro differs from Max in kind. The credits article says “Consumer Pro plans do not start with a set monthly amount.” Instead, “Paid Consumer Pro plans now include a weekly amount of Computer usage,” which resets weekly from the first time you use it, and “Unused included usage does not roll over from one week to the next.” Without credits, “Computer runs your tasks on the Light effort setting.” Pro also gets a sign-up bonus of “4,000 credits (one-time, expire in 30 days).”

Max: frontier models, Brain, and $100 of credits a month

The Max article describes Max as “Perplexity’s most advanced subscription tier built for users who need the highest level of access to the latest, most advanced AI models, Create files and apps queries, and the newest products and features.” The pricing FAQ says Max is built for heavy, sustained work and includes everything in Pro with higher limits on Deep Research, asset generation and file uploads, plus more video creation and several Model Council runs per month. The grid gives Max five times the video generation, Brain, and 10,000 Computer credits a month.

Two things Max adds are not features. Credits: “Consumer Max plans start with 10,000 credits a month,” plus “35,000 credits (one-time, expire in 30 days)” at sign-up. At “100 credits equals $1,” that is $100 of Computer work every month and a $350 bonus once. And a boundary: the model access “only applies within Perplexity web and does not apply to programmatic access via API, which is billed separately.” Max also carries “the highest weekly limit on browser agent queries available across all subscription tiers” in Comet, and Brain, “a self-improving memory system,” which “has its own toggle in Computer settings.”

What Max does not get is Pro’s weekly allowance. The credits article says the included weekly usage “is not included with promotional or non-paying Pro plans, Max plans, or Enterprise plans.” Max runs on its 10,000 monthly credits and purchases; Pro runs on a weekly allowance and purchases.

How credits are spent

“Today, 100 credits equals $1.” The article’s table of typical usage: light tasks such as research threads and summarization at 100 to 350 credits, complex multi-step reports at 350 to 950, heavy documents and research-and-code combinations at 875 to 2,275, and mega projects such as video production and data collection at 2,400 to 9,800. In dollars, that is $1 to $3.50 for a light task and up to $98 for a mega project. The bonus credits do not recur: “The bonus is one per account. It does not repeat if you cancel and resubscribe, switch between monthly and yearly billing, or apply a discount or education offer later.” When included usage and credits are both gone and auto-refill is off, “The session is blocked.”

Where the documents disagree or leave gaps

The light-task number appears twice, differently. The article’s quick version says “Light tasks use about 15 to 70 credits.” Its table says light tasks run 100 to 350 credits. Both are on the same page.

No monthly price on the pricing page. Pro and Max are shown as “$17” and “$167” “when billed annually” only.

“Monthly and yearly billing” exists in the fine print. The bonus rule mentions switching “between monthly and yearly billing,” so a monthly option exists even though the page prices only the annual one.

Pro’s weekly allowance is rolling out. “Included usage is rolling out gradually; if you don’t see Included in Pro on your Usage page, your account doesn’t have it yet.”

API is separate. Max’s model access “does not apply to programmatic access via API, which is billed separately.”

Before you choose

This is a sequence of checks, not a recommendation:

Read the billing toggle at checkout. The page’s $17 and $167 are annual rates; confirm the monthly figure before comparing with a $20 plan elsewhere
If you are a student or educator, verify first. Education Pro is $10 with SheerID
Decide whether Computer is the point. Pro gives a weekly allowance on the Light setting; Max gives 10,000 credits a month, $100 of work
Spend the bonus inside 30 days. 4,000 credits on Pro and 35,000 on Max expire, and the bonus never repeats
Check your usage page, not the help article, for your included amount. The weekly allowance is rolling out gradually
Keep API costs separate. Neither plan covers programmatic access

Quick answers to what people search

How much is Perplexity Pro? “$17” a month “when billed annually” on the pricing page, $204 a year by our math; the monthly-billing price is not shown there.

How much is Perplexity Max? “$167” a month “when billed annually,” $2,004 a year by our math, with “10,000 monthly credits.”

What is the difference between Perplexity Pro and Max? Max adds frontier AI models, Brain, 5x video generation, priority access to new features, priority support, and 10,000 Computer credits a month; Pro has top models, 10x limits and a weekly Computer allowance.

Is there a Perplexity student discount? Yes. “Education Pro” is “$10/mo with verification from SheerID” and includes everything in Pro.

How much is a Perplexity credit? “Today, 100 credits equals $1.”

Do Perplexity bonus credits expire? Yes, the one-time bonus credits “expire in 30 days,” and the bonus “is one per account.”

Does Perplexity Pro include Computer? Yes, with “Expanded Computer access” and a weekly included amount of usage on paid Pro plans; Max gets “Maximum Computer usage” and monthly credits.

Bottom line

As of October 9, 2026, Perplexity’s pricing page sells Pro at $17 and Max at $167 a month on annual billing, $204 and $2,004 a year by our math, with no monthly figure shown; a verified student pays $10. The real dividing line is the Computer agent: Pro gets a weekly allowance that does not roll over, Max gets 10,000 credits a month worth $100, and both get a 30-day bonus that never repeats. Check the monthly price at checkout, and read the credits page twice, because it gives two different numbers for a light task.

Prices, feature lines and quotations from Perplexity’s pricing page and four Perplexity Help Center articles, US versions, read on October 9, 2026. The annual totals and dollar values of credits are our own calculation. Perplexity’s pages are the authority and change often. This is general information, not financial advice.