Compare a raw LLM API stack against a search-grounded answer engine before you decide where the retrieval layer lives.
Pick OpenAI when you want a general-purpose model API and you'll own the retrieval, grounding, and citation layer yourself — maximum flexibility, more glue code. Pick Perplexity when fresh, citation-backed answers from the live web are the product and you'd rather consume a managed answer-engine API than build search-plus-RAG from scratch.
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| Attribute | Perplexity | OpenAI |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI / ML | AI / ML |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free | Free |
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Platforms | — | web, api |
AI
OpenAI vs Cohere
