Perplexity is expanding its revenue-sharing program to include its Comet web browser, compensating media houses when their content appears in AI searches, building upon its initial announcement last year.
The expansion of the revenue-sharing program is aimed at compensating publishers whose content is surfaced on Perplexity’s AI answer engine platform, and now on the Comet web browser. The company is funding these payouts through a new subscription tier for the Comet browser, called Comet Plus. Perplexity has allocated $42.5 million for distribution among participating publishers, according to Bloomberg.
CEO Aravind Srinivas stated, “AI is helping to create a better internet, but publishers still need to get paid. So we think this is actually the right solution, and we’re happy to make adjustments along the way.” The expanded program enables publishers to earn revenue when Comet browser bots scrape their website content, when the browser’s AI assistant surfaces their content, or when the AI agent visits their websites to perform actions.
The Comet Plus subscription, reportedly priced at $5 per month, provides subscribers with access to curated content from participating publishers. This subscription model serves as the funding mechanism for the publisher payouts. While Perplexity has not disclosed the names of all participating publishers, Jessica Chan, the head of publisher partnerships, indicated that the company is in discussions with existing partners like Time and Fortune.
Chan described the current web traffic-based revenue model as “an old model,” and expressed the company’s desire to “create a new standard for compensation.” Notably, the announcement of the revenue-sharing program coincided with the filing of a lawsuit against Perplexity by two Japanese newspaper publishers, Asahi Shimbun and Nikkei, alleging copyright infringement.
The lawsuit, filed in the Tokyo District Court, seeks an injunction to prevent Perplexity from reproducing their articles and demands JPY 2.2 billion in damages for each publishing house.
