Perplexity AI Reaches 780 Million Queries, Projects Exponential Growth

Perplexity AI's CEO, Aravind Srinivas, announced at Bloomberg's Tech Summit that the AI search engine processed 780 million queries in May. This represents over 20% month-over-month growth. Srinivas expressed confidence in reaching one billion weekly queries within a year if this growth continues.

He highlighted the platform's rapid progress, stating, "The first day in 2022, we did 3,000 queries. Now we're doing 30 million queries a day. It's been phenomenal growth." Srinivas believes this trajectory is sustainable, particularly with the development of their new browser, Comet.

Comet Browser: A Cognitive Operating System

Srinivas emphasized Comet's potential to drive further growth. He explained, "If people are in the browser, it's infinite retention." He envisions capturing searches from the address bar, new tab page, and sidebars, increasing queries per user and attracting users dissatisfied with traditional browsers like Chrome.

Perplexity aims for Comet to be more than just a browser. Srinivas described it as a "cognitive operating system" designed to shift AI's role from providing answers to completing actions. He explained that while current AI answers might represent four or five searches in one, AI-powered actions could complete entire browsing sessions with a single prompt.

This vision requires a fundamental redesign of the browser. Srinivas stated, "You really need to hybridize the compute on the client and the server side seamlessly. And that calls for rethinking the whole browser."

He further elaborated on Comet's purpose: "It'll be there for you anytime, for work or life, as a system on the side, or just going and doing browsing sessions for you. This will fundamentally change how we think about the internet. We used to browse the internet, but now people are living on it. A proactive, personalized AI needs to live with you, and that's why we need to rethink the browser entirely."

While details about Comet remain limited, Srinivas previously indicated its development is partly driven by the desire to track user activity for personalized advertising, similar to Google's strategy. A launch date is yet to be confirmed, though Srinivas has suggested a timeframe of three to five weeks.

Comet will have native virtual meets recording, transcription, and searches over them. Won’t be part of the first release, but very fast follow up. As for release date: it’s going to take a min of three weeks and a max of five weeks. Reliability and latency have improved over...

Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) May 13, 2025