Perplexity processed an impressive 780 million search queries during May, according to CEO Aravind Srinivas. Speaking at a Bloomberg Tech Summit, he revealed the AI-powered search platform is experiencing over 20% month-over-month growth in usage. Srinivas projected that maintaining this momentum could see the company handling 1 billion weekly queries within a year.
Highlighting the company’s rapid expansion, Srinivas contrasted current daily query volumes of 30 million with early 2022 figures of just 3,000 daily searches. The CEO attributed part of this growth trajectory to an upcoming product called Comet – a new browser prototype designed to fundamentally reimagine how users interact with the internet.
“If people are in the browser, it’s infinite retention. Everything in the search bar, everything on the new tab page, these are all going to be extra queries per active user. That’s going to be the way to grow over the coming year.”
Comet represents Perplexity’s vision for shifting AI from passive answering to proactive task completion. Unlike traditional searches requiring multiple queries, the browser aims to execute entire browsing sessions through single prompts by blending client-server computing. Srinivas described it as a “cognitive operating system” rather than just another browser.
The company plans to leverage Comet’s deep user interaction tracking to enable hyper-personalized advertising, following a model similar to Google’s historic growth strategy. While specifics remain under wraps, leaked features include native tools for meeting transcription and searchable recording capabilities.
“You want to build a proactive, personalized AI – it needs to live together with you. That’s why we need to rethink the browser entirely. People aren’t just browsing the internet anymore – they’re living on it.”
Though an exact launch date hasn’t been confirmed, development updates suggest Comet could debut within 3-5 weeks according to recent social media posts from the CEO. The browser’s release marks Perplexity’s ambitious attempt to redefine digital workflows through integrated AI.
