Perplexity has expanded its Comet browser to iOS, bringing its AI-powered answer engine and built-in Comet Assistant to iPhone users for the first time. The move completes the platform’s spread across desktop, Android, and now Apple’s mobile ecosystem.
The Comet browser originally launched on Mac last summer and has since reached Android. The iOS release, confirmed on 18 March 2026, makes the full Comet experience, including AI-assisted browsing, summarisation, and contextual search, available as a standalone iPhone app.
What is the Perplexity Comet AI browser?
Comet is not a conventional browser with an AI bolt-on. It is built from the ground up around Perplexity’s answer engine, which synthesises information from web sources and delivers direct answers rather than a list of links. The Comet Assistant sits alongside the browsing experience, offering contextual help, summarisation, and multi-step research capabilities.
On iPhone, the app functions as a full browser replacement, though adoption will depend on how many users are willing to leave Safari for an AI-first experience. The original desktop launch carried a significant price tag, and the mobile version follows a similar premium model.
AI search on mobile
The iPhone launch arrives at a moment when the AI search market is fiercely competitive. Google has integrated AI Overviews into its mobile search, and Apple itself is developing deeper AI features through Apple Intelligence. Perplexity’s bet is that a purpose-built AI browser can deliver a fundamentally different search experience, one where the browser itself is the answer engine rather than a passive window to search results.
The timing is also significant from a legal perspective. Perplexity is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Amazon over whether its Comet shopping agents can autonomously interact with the retail platform. Extending to iPhone broadens the user base at precisely the moment when the company is defending its right to let AI agents browse and act on behalf of users.
What follows from this?
The AI browser category is still young, but Perplexity now has a genuine cross-platform presence. Whether users adopt AI-first browsing at scale remains an open question, but the infrastructure is falling into place. The real test will be whether Comet can sustain engagement once the novelty of AI-assisted search wears off and users demand consistent, reliable value.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice.
