Perplexity, the AI search startup, has made a decisive move away from advertising in its chatbot responses, aligning itself with Anthropic and setting itself apart from OpenAI. Speaking at a recent roundtable with reporters, company executives emphasized their focus on subscription and enterprise sales over ad-based monetization, as reported by Business Insider. This stance reflects a growing trend among certain AI firms to prioritize trust and user experience over advertising revenue.
The company is currently ramping up its business sales strategy, targeting large organizations and high-profile users, including finance professionals, CEOs, and healthcare practitioners. Although Perplexity’s enterprise sales team consists of only five people, it has ambitious plans for aggressive expansion. This positioning places Perplexity in competition with companies like Glean, which specializes in helping employees search internal files and data using AI-driven tools.
According to executives, Perplexity is prioritizing revenue and customer retention over traditional metrics such as the number of questions answered. While the company did not disclose specific financial figures, it reported a substantial growth rate of 4.7 times last year, projecting an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $200 million by October 2025. Perplexity also committed to maintaining a free tier, albeit with certain limitations, despite the skepticism surrounding AI investments in Silicon Valley.
At an AI conference last year, investors informally voted Perplexity as the company they would most likely bet against, expressing concerns about the larger AI bubble. However, company leaders assert their commitment to building a sustainable business model rather than chasing the latest trends. They argue that the introduction of ads in AI-generated responses erodes user trust, a critical component for long-term success.
In contrast, OpenAI has recently begun testing ads in its popular chatbot, ChatGPT. The company announced that this initiative will initially be rolled out to a subset of users in the United States on free and subscription plans. In a statement on social media, OpenAI clarified that while ads will be present, they will not influence the chatbot’s responses. Ads will be clearly labeled as sponsored content, distinct from the chatbot’s answers, with the aim of providing users free access while preserving the trust they place in the tool for personal and important tasks.
As Perplexity aligns itself with Anthropic’s philosophy—and distances itself from OpenAI’s ad-driven approach—it is banking on the belief that trust and enterprise adoption will serve as stronger long-term growth drivers. The company’s strategy reflects a broader industry discussion about the implications of ad monetization in AI platforms. While some firms see advertising as a necessary revenue stream, others, like Perplexity and Anthropic, view it as a potential risk to user trust and overall service integrity.
This strategic divergence among AI companies highlights a critical moment in the industry as businesses seek to balance profitability with user experience. As Perplexity continues to enhance its enterprise offerings, it remains to be seen whether its trust-centric model will resonate more deeply with users and organizations than the ad-supported approaches employed by competitors like OpenAI.
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