Jan records 291,894 monthly visits with -9.6% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. Perplexity records 88,310,223 monthly visits with -3.7% growth and Freemium pricing.
Open-source desktop AI that runs models locally on your own machine
Real-time AI answer engine and research workspace combining live web citations with frontier reasoning models.
| Dimension / Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Official Domain | jan.ai | perplexity.ai |
| Pricing Model | Free | Freemium |
| Monthly Visits | 291.89K (291,894) | 88.31M (88,310,223) |
| MoM Traffic Delta | -30.85K (-9.6%) | -3.39M (-3.7%) |
| Primary Market & Share | 🇺🇸 United States (23%) | 🇺🇸 United States (25.5%) |
| Direct Visits / mo | 105.62K | 63.32M |
| User Rating | 4.6 | 4.7 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |
Open-source desktop AI that runs models locally on your own machine
Download and run open models such as Llama, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma, and DeepSeek directly on your own machine, with chat data kept on device.
Optionally connect API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, and other providers to route requests to frontier models from the same interface.
Jan exposes a local server endpoint that follows the OpenAI API shape, so existing SDKs and tools can talk to your local models without code changes.
Create assistants with their own system instructions, model selection, and parameters, then reuse them across conversations.
Real-time AI answer engine and research workspace combining live web citations with frontier reasoning models.
Executes multi-step iterative web and document research across hundreds of sources, cross-checking facts and generating structured, citation-backed analytical reports that can be exported as PDFs or shared as interactive Perplexity Pages.
Lets Pro and Max subscribers switch dynamically between Perplexity's in-house Sonar models and top external models (including Claude 4, o3-pro, and Gemini) or compare multi-model reasoning outputs side by side.
Provides dedicated project workspaces where users upload local PDFs, spreadsheets, and text files, configure custom assistant instructions, and run queries that combine private document retrieval with live internet search.
Extends Perplexity from passive Q&A into agentic execution, turning high-level user requests into completed workflows, multi-tab browser actions, and automated data synthesis via the Comet ecosystem.
Offers deeper conversational reasoning and coding agents, but lacks Perplexity's dedicated inline citation-first search layout.
Offers deeper conversational reasoning and coding agents, but lacks Perplexity's dedicated inline citation-first search layout.
Leverages Google's vast search index for real-time answers, but offers a standard chat interface rather than deep research feeds.
Leverages Google's vast search index for real-time answers, but offers a standard chat interface rather than deep research feeds.
Provides exceptional analytical depth and writing quality, but does not focus purely on web-sourced search summaries.
Provides exceptional analytical depth and writing quality, but does not focus purely on web-sourced search summaries.
Integrates real-time social data search for breaking news, but leans more toward casual chat than structured research.
Integrates real-time social data search for breaking news, but leans more toward casual chat than structured research.
Delivers agentic multi-source research and page generation, but can feel more cluttered than Perplexity's clean answer engine.
Delivers agentic multi-source research and page generation, but can feel more cluttered than Perplexity's clean answer engine.
Free / Open-sourceProvides a lightweight command-line runtime for local LLMs, though it lacks Jan's built-in graphical user interface.
Free / Open-sourceProvides a lightweight command-line runtime for local LLMs, though it lacks Jan's built-in graphical user interface.
SpecialistOffers a comprehensive free index of academic literature, but lacks conversational chat synthesis for general web queries.
SpecialistOffers a comprehensive free index of academic literature, but lacks conversational chat synthesis for general web queries.
SpecialistFocuses exclusively on peer-reviewed scientific papers for evidence-based answers, unlike Perplexity's broad general web search.
SpecialistFocuses exclusively on peer-reviewed scientific papers for evidence-based answers, unlike Perplexity's broad general web search.
Combines privacy-focused web search with AI summarization, though it requires a paid subscription for full access.
Combines privacy-focused web search with AI summarization, though it requires a paid subscription for full access.
SpecialistAnalyzes scholarly article citations to verify scientific claims, making it superior for academic literature reviews.
SpecialistAnalyzes scholarly article citations to verify scientific claims, making it superior for academic literature reviews.
Generates structured, cited answers from live web queries, though with less polished UI and advanced model options.
Generates structured, cited answers from live web queries, though with less polished UI and advanced model options.
Free / Open-sourceOffers a powerful self-hosted web interface for local models, but requires manual Docker setup rather than desktop installation.
Free / Open-sourceOffers a powerful self-hosted web interface for local models, but requires manual Docker setup rather than desktop installation.
