Perplexity Pro AI: Free 1-Year Trial Subscription with PayPal ($200 Value)

PayPal is offering customers a free 1-year trial subscription to Perpexity Pro (press release), which is a premium AI service that usually costs $20/month or $200/year and includes access to the most recent versions of ChatGPT/Claude as well as their new Comet AI browser. So it can save you money on a separate premium ChatGPT subscription as well.

I asked Perplexity to summarize the Pro features, and here’s what it said (this list is the only part of this post written by AI):

• Access to advanced AI models including GPT-4o, Claude family, Gemini, Sonar, and more for enhanced reasoning and creativity.
• Unlimited Pro Searches and up to 50 Labs queries per month with deeper search and multi-step reasoning capabilities.
• File upload and analysis features allowing document-based research and summarization.
• Real-time web search with citation-rich answers and the ability to generate images directly in chat.
• Faster, prioritized response times and ad-free experiences for higher productivity.
• Exclusive support channels and perks, including deals and discounts from partner brands.

To activate, you must open your PayPal smartphone app and find the offer in the subscriptions hub area. Paypal wants to be the middleman in our new subscription-based lifestyles. I don’t find them to be necessary at all, but I’ll take the free trial.

Noe that after the 12-month trial ends, the subscription will automatically renew on a paid basis unless you cancel. You must manage the subscription at the Perplexity site, but you can manually cancel it immediately after activation (if you don’t want to set a reminder) and you can keep using it until it automatically stops at the end of the trial. Here’s my screenshot proof:

Just as with the internet, I expect that with AI there will be both new opportunities and collateral damage. I’m very behind in learning to use AI as a tool, and hope to use this subscription to better understand it.