Perplexity Launches Free AI Shopper With PayPal

Perplexity has rolled out a free AI-powered shopping assistant to US users that mirrors recent moves from OpenAI and Google: you describe what you want, refine with follow-ups, and get product recommendation cards showing specs and reviews. The assistant surfaces options you can purchase directly through Perplexity when merchants support PayPal, using an “Instant Buy” integration.

The chatbot is designed to keep conversational context and user preferences across requests — Perplexity gives the example of recommending boots later if it already knows you asked for a ferry-commute jacket — and says mobile access for iOS and Android is coming in “the coming weeks,” while desktop and web access are already available.

Perplexity positions the feature as more exploratory than search bars and less driven by affiliate revenue than some editorial shopping lists. The company says its agents “understand intent, remember preferences, and act as extensions of how users would approach a task,” and it frames Instant Buy with PayPal as a way for merchants to remain involved in post-click relationships (a nod to concerns like what The Verge calls the “DoorDash problem”).