Perplexity AI is growing fast with its answering system, but still far smaller than Google’s massive scale.
Google’s dominance relies on defaults and Chrome, while Perplexity pushes Comet to gain reach.
Antitrust battles and AI adoption will decide how much Perplexity can challenge Google’s search monopoly.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way people look for information. Traditional search engines such as Google provide a long list of websites for users to browse through, while new tools like Perplexity promise direct and clear answers with references. Perplexity AI, founded in 2022, calls itself an “answer engine.”
It is designed to summarize the web in real time and provide short, useful responses, saving users from going through multiple pages. This has sparked a major debate: can Perplexity truly replace Google, which has dominated online search for more than twenty years?
The biggest difference between the two companies is scale. In May 2025, Perplexity’s chief executive revealed that the service had processed about 780 million searches in that single month. This was a strong sign of growth, with usage increasing by more than 20 percent month after month.
However, Google still operates on a completely different level. It handles more than 5 trillion searches every year, which equals about 13 to 14 billion searches every day. Google’s market share worldwide remains around 90 percent. This dominance shows how much larger and more deeply rooted it is compared to Perplexity.
Traffic data confirms the gap. In July 2025, Perplexity’s website recorded about 140 million visits. That is remarkable for a young company but tiny compared to Google, which continues to attract billions of users daily.
Perplexity AI promotes the Comet browser as an answer engine that focuses on clarity. It searches the web in real time and produces direct responses with citations to sources. Google, on the other hand, has been adding artificial intelligence to its traditional search system. Its new AI features, called AI Overviews and AI Mode, are now available in more than 200 countries and cover over 40 languages.
The difference lies in incentives. Google makes most of its money from advertisements and wants users to click on websites. Perplexity, however, relies on subscriptions and a growing ecosystem that encourages users to stay within its platform rather than visiting multiple sites.
Google became the dominant search engine partly owing to its distribution. It is the default on many mobile devices, and its browser, Chrome, is the most widely used in the world. These factors keep it at the top of the market.
Perplexity AI has realized how important distribution is for the Comet browser. In July 2025, it launched Comet, a browser built on Chromium, with Perplexity integrated directly into it. Then in August 2025, the company surprised the tech world by offering to buy Google Chrome for about $34.5 to $35 billion. This came at a time when regulators in the United States were considering forcing Google to sell the Chrome browser as part of antitrust remedies. While this deal is not likely to succeed soon, it shows that Perplexity is serious about competing with the search engine giant in terms of distribution.
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Investors are showing great interest in Perplexity AI and the Comet browser. In August 2025, reports suggested that the company was raising funds at a valuation of about $20 billion, up from 18 billion just a month earlier. Estimates place Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue at around $100 to $150 million by mid-2025.
This is a strong achievement for a company only three years old, but it is still very small compared to Google’s enormous revenues, which exceed $300 billion annually. The difference in financial resources highlights the challenge of catching up.
AI-driven summaries are creating challenges for publishers. In July 2025, research found that when Google included AI summaries, users were less likely to click on the websites listed below. Some industry groups claimed that referral traffic from Google had dropped by 1 to 25 percent during recent months due to these AI Overviews. Google has disagreed with these numbers, saying that overall traffic has remained mostly stable.
Perplexity also faces criticism. In 2024, major media outlets such as WIRED and Forbes accused the company of plagiarism and scraping. Although Perplexity usually includes citations, critics argue that summarizing articles in this way reduces direct traffic to the sources. These disputes show how much tension exists between AI tools and the publishers that create the content.
Google is currently facing a historic antitrust case in the United States. Courts have ruled that it maintained an illegal monopoly in search, and remedies are expected to be decided in late 2025. The possible outcomes include limits on Google’s deals with device makers, new rules on data, or even forcing the tech giant to sell key businesses such as Chrome. Any of these measures could weaken Google’s hold on the market and give rivals like Perplexity more space to grow.
Replacing Google completely is unlikely anytime soon. Google’s scale, with billions of searches every day, is far greater than Perplexity’s hundreds of millions per month. Google’s position as the default option on mobile devices and its control of the Chrome browser also keep it ahead.
Perplexity AI faces challenges around trust, content rights, and competition from Google’s own AI features. At the same time, Google is moving quickly to close any innovation gap by improving its AI Overviews.
The more realistic scenario is coexistence rather than replacement. Google will remain the main search engine for most users. Perplexity, however, is building a strong niche for people who want direct, summarized, and cited answers. If antitrust rulings weaken Google’s dominance, or if Perplexity’s browser becomes popular, its growth could accelerate.
Also Read: Top Controversies of Perplexity AI
The future of this rivalry will depend on several factors. The outcome of the antitrust case will be crucial. Perplexity must also build better relationships with publishers to avoid legal and reputational problems. Finally, user behavior will shape the market: people must decide whether they prefer AI-generated summaries or the traditional experience of browsing multiple sites.
Perplexity is showing that there is real demand for a new way of searching online. Its rapid growth to 780 million monthly searches and its rising valuation of $20 billion prove its momentum. Google is still far ahead with more than 5 trillion searches a year and about 90 percent of the market. For now, Perplexity AI is not a replacement but a rising challenger. The competition, however, has already changed the nature of online search.
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