Published July 11, 2026
Short answer: yes — on the consumer product, Perplexity is built to track you. Your search history is stored and tied to your account, it is used to train and improve Perplexity's AI by default, and the company has been unusually open that data is central to its plans: it built a browser designed to watch what you do online and turn it into "hyper-personalized" ads. Of all the big AI search tools, Perplexity's direction leans most explicitly toward advertising.
This guide decodes what Perplexity actually collects and keeps, whether it trains on your searches, what the Comet browser changes, and how the consumer product differs from the API. Policies change, so treat this as an informed starting point and confirm the current terms for your own account.
The Short Answer: Yes, and Data Is the Business Model
Perplexity is a search product, and search queries are among the most revealing data there is — what you are curious about, worried about, buying, or planning. On the consumer app, those queries are saved to your account, used to improve Perplexity's models, and handled by a company whose leadership has said plainly that it wants more of your data, not less.
That framing matters. With some providers, data collection is a byproduct of running the service. With Perplexity's stated direction, understanding you well enough to serve targeted ads is increasingly part of the point. So "does Perplexity track you?" has a blunt answer for the consumer product: yes, by design.
Your Search History Is Stored — and Trained On
Here is what happens to your searches on a normal consumer plan (Free, Pro, or Max):
- History is kept until you delete it. Your searches and threads stay in your account until you manually remove them.
- Deleted searches linger. Even after you delete a conversation, it can remain in Perplexity's backend systems for around 30 days.
- Training is on by default. Perplexity uses your data to train and improve its AI unless you opt out. The control is an "AI Data Retention" toggle in Account Settings → Preferences. Turning it off applies only to future data — it does not necessarily remove what has already been used.
- Trackers and analytics. European data-protection experts have flagged that Perplexity uses tools like Google Analytics, cookies, and other tracking technologies — the ordinary web-tracking layer on top of the AI itself.
The Comet Browser and "Hyper-Personalized" Ads
The clearest signal of Perplexity's direction is its Comet browser, launched in 2025. Reporting on it — and Perplexity's own leadership — described the goal directly: to collect data from outside the app to understand users better. According to that reporting, Comet is designed to track browsing history, visited pages and their content, downloads, purchases, clicks, and time spent on pages, in order to build detailed profiles for "hyper-personalized" advertising.
There is an irony worth noting: Comet ships with an ad blocker that strips other companies' trackers, while Perplexity uses the browser to track you for its own ads. Related features like "Personal Search," which can reach into connected accounts such as email and files, deepen that profile. None of this is required to use Perplexity's basic search — but it is the direction the product is heading, and it is a strong reason to be careful about what you feed it.
Consumer Perplexity vs the API: What Applies Where
As with other providers, how your data is treated depends on how you reach Perplexity.
- Consumer app (Free/Pro/Max): search history stored, trained on by default, and part of a data-and-ads business direction.
- Enterprise: Perplexity states that enterprise data is never used to train or fine-tune its models.
- The Sonar API (for developers): Perplexity maintains a Zero Data Retention policy — prompts and responses sent through the API are not stored.
So the honest answer to "does Perplexity track you?" splits cleanly: on the consumer product, yes and increasingly so; through the API, your searches are not stored or used for training at all.
What Happens When You Delete — and How to Limit Tracking
Deleting a search removes it from your history, but a copy can persist in Perplexity's backend for around 30 days, and deleting your whole account removes your data within about 30 days. If you use the consumer product, a few steps reduce your exposure:
- Turn off the AI Data Retention toggle so future searches are not used for training.
- Delete searches you do not want kept, and clear your history periodically.
- Be cautious with the Comet browser and Personal Search — they widen how much of your activity is collected.
- Keep genuinely sensitive questions out of an account-linked search tool entirely.
Is Perplexity Private Enough for Sensitive Research?
Perplexity is excellent at what it does — fast, sourced answers from the live web. But its consumer privacy posture, and especially its stated move toward tracking and advertising, make it a poor place for sensitive research: medical worries, legal questions, financial situations, anything you would not want built into an ad profile. For that kind of work, the API and enterprise terms are far stricter, and keeping identifying details out of the query matters more than any setting.
How Secret Chat AI Uses Perplexity Differently
The most direct way to stop worrying about what Perplexity tracks is to stop being identifiable to it in the first place. That is what Secret Chat AI is built for: it is an anonymizer and depersonalizer. Its whole design is no profile, no association, no training — it makes you unlinkable to the providers, so you search Perplexity as a stranger. (On Secret Chat, Perplexity is even available to free users.)
- No profile of you. Registration takes an email — used only for account access and payment, never to store or associate your searches with you — with no name, phone number, or behavioral profile built across your queries.
- No search associated with you. Secret Chat reaches Perplexity through its API on your behalf, so Perplexity sees the gateway, not you — no identity, no account, and no IP address attached. The consumer tracking, ad profiling, and training-by-default do not apply.
- Nothing kept under your name. Your history lives in your browser's local storage, not a Perplexity account, and each message can produce a Session Privacy Report (PDF).
This reframes the whole tracking question: even where any data is retained at the provider, what is kept is not linked to you. The one honest boundary is that Secret Chat AI is an anonymizer, not a content filter. Perplexity still has to read your query to answer it, and Secret Chat does not encrypt or strip the words you send — it removes who you are from the request, not what the request says. So keep names and identifiers you would not want a provider to see out of your searches. You can also switch between Perplexity and other private AI models in one place.
Table: Perplexity Data at a Glance
| How you use Perplexity | Trained on / profiled? | Typical retention |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer app (default) | Yes — training on, ad-profile direction | Kept until you delete; ~30 days in backend after |
| Consumer, AI Data Retention off | No (future searches) | Still stored until you delete it |
| Comet browser / Personal Search | Yes — broad browsing/activity data | Extensive profiling |
| Sonar API (how Secret Chat AI reaches Perplexity) | No | Zero Data Retention — not stored |
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Perplexity save my search history?
On the consumer app, yes. Your searches are kept in your account until you delete them, and deleted conversations can remain in Perplexity's backend for about 30 days. Through the Sonar API, prompts and responses are not stored.
- Does Perplexity train on my searches?
By default, yes on the consumer plans. You can opt out with the "AI Data Retention" toggle in Account Settings → Preferences, but it only applies to future searches. Enterprise data and API traffic are not used for training.
- Is Perplexity building a browser to track me?
Perplexity launched the Comet browser in 2025, and reporting — along with its leadership's own statements — described it as collecting browsing activity to build detailed profiles for personalized advertising. It is optional, but it reflects the company's data-and-ads direction.
- How do I stop Perplexity from using my data?
Turn off the AI Data Retention toggle, delete your search history, avoid the Comet browser and Personal Search for sensitive activity, and keep confidential details out of your queries. For the strongest protection, use the API or a privacy-focused interface rather than a personal account.
- Does Secret Chat AI let Perplexity track me?
No. Secret Chat AI reaches Perplexity anonymously through its API — no profile, account, or IP attached, and your email (used only for account access and payment) is never associated with your searches. Your history stays in your browser. Perplexity still processes each query to answer it, so remove identifiers you would not want it to see.
Conclusion
So, does Perplexity track you? On the consumer product, yes — your search history is stored and trained on by default, ordinary web trackers are in play, and the company is openly building toward profiling you for ads. Opting out of AI Data Retention and skipping Comet help, but the real protections come from the API and enterprise terms, where your searches are not stored or used for training.
If you want Perplexity's fast, sourced answers without being profiled — an anonymous, API-based connection with no profile of you, local browser-based history, and a choice of models — Secret Chat AI is built for exactly that, without pretending to remove Perplexity's processing of your query.