Comet Review (2026): Perplexity's Agentic Browser, Tested for Australia

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

The verdict: Comet is Perplexity's agentic web browser, and it is the most accessible version of the "an AI that uses the web for you" idea yet. The browser is genuinely free, on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android — which is where it beat its obvious rival, OpenAI's macOS-only ChatGPT Atlas, which was discontinued on 9 August 2026. Perplexity's search heritage shows: the assistant in the sidebar is a strong research companion, and the agent will click, fill forms and work across tabs to finish a task. Two things hold it back for an Australian business owner. The agent that makes Comet interesting is largely behind a paid Perplexity plan from US$20/month, and the background agents that go further need the US$200/month Max tier. And the security story is the worst in the category: outside researchers have repeatedly shown Comet's agent can be hijacked by hidden instructions on a web page, and when one firm first disclosed a data-exfiltration flaw, Perplexity initially waved it away. There is also nothing Australian about it — no AUD pricing, no local data story, no AU support. Free, cross-platform and useful for low-stakes work. Not yet something to point at a logged-in bank account. Score: 16/25 — Very Good.

What it is

Comet is a web browser with Perplexity's AI built into its core — a standalone browser, built on Chromium, where the AI assistant lives permanently in a sidebar rather than as an add-on to Chrome. It comes from Perplexity AI, the San Francisco search company behind the Perplexity "answer engine," and it launched on 9 July 2025 for Windows and macOS, then Android on 20 November 2025 and iOS on 18 March 2026. It does three things a normal browser does not.

First, the assistant travels with you on every page. You can ask it about whatever you are reading, summarise a long article, or pull facts out of a page without copying and pasting into a separate window — backed by Perplexity's cited, search-first style of answer.

Second, it is agentic. You can tell the assistant to do something, and it opens tabs, clicks, fills forms and works across multiple sites to finish the job — booking, shopping, gathering and comparing — rather than just answering a question.

Third, on the top tier it runs background assistants — autonomous agents you can schedule to run on their own while you do something else, like "summarise this morning's emails and today's meetings at 8:30am daily."

That is the pitch, and it was the same bet OpenAI made with Atlas: not a browser you drive with an AI on the side, but a browser the AI can drive for you. Comet's distinguishing move is reach — it shipped free, on every major platform, while Atlas stayed locked to the Mac until OpenAI discontinued it on 9 August 2026.

What it costs in Australia

Here is the part that has changed, and that people get wrong. The Comet browser itself is free. After a stretch in 2025 when it was gated behind Perplexity's most expensive plan, the browser was opened to free download in October 2025, and on 23 March 2026 it went free worldwide — no subscription, no regional locks, no account needed for basic browsing. You can download it on Mac, Windows, iPhone or Android today and pay nothing.

What you pay for is how far the AI goes. On the free tier, you get the sidecar assistant — questions about the page, summaries, light help. The full agent, and especially the autonomous background agents, ride your Perplexity plan. So the real cost of "Comet as Perplexity sells it" is the cost of a Perplexity subscription:

A few Australian notes. Perplexity is priced in US dollars on its own site, with no native AUD price there — the AUD figures above are our own conversions at roughly 1.40 to the US dollar ex-GST, so treat them as a guide and check the figure at checkout rather than assume. In the Comet app it is Australian dollars: the Australian App Store listing sells Perplexity Pro at A$30.00/month or A$300.00/year and Perplexity Max at A$300.00/month, GST included, on an Apple tax invoice — within a few per cent of the web price either way, and with the GST line Perplexity's own checkout does not itemise. (Corrected 21 Sep 2026 — this passage previously said there was no native AUD price at all.) Perplexity charges Australian consumers GST on its subscriptions, and a GST-registered business can generally claim it back as an input tax credit, but Perplexity does not itemise an AUD or GST line on its public pricing page, so confirm the treatment when you subscribe. The weak Australian dollar adds about 55% before tax, which is why a "twenty-dollar" plan lands closer to thirty-four here.

So: free to download and use the browser, around A$28 a month to unlock the agent that makes it interesting, and roughly A$280 a month for the autonomous background agents on Max.

How it works / features

You browse normally, with Perplexity one click away the whole time. The standout pieces:

• Assistant in the sidebar on every page. Ask about what you are reading, summarise it, compare across open tabs, or have it draft a reply — without leaving the page. Perplexity's search roots mean answers come with citations, which suits research.
• Agentic actions. The assistant opens tabs and clicks for you to finish a multi-step task across sites — filling a cart, comparing options, pulling details off several pages into one place.
• Background assistants (Max). Schedule autonomous agents that run on their own, independently of your active session — a daily briefing, a recurring watch on a page, a routine task you do not want to babysit.
• Cross-platform from day one. Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, all free. For an Australian small business running Windows and Android, that is the difference between "I can try this" and "I cannot run it."
• Imports your old browser. On first run it brings across bookmarks, history and saved logins from your existing browser, so switching is low-friction.
• Model muscle behind the agent. Pro runs the agent on a Claude Sonnet model by default; Max users get an Opus model and can pick which model drives the browser agent.

On capability versus limits, Perplexity is reasonably honest in its own materials: the agent can browse and act on its own, but it can struggle with complex multi-step jobs and custom-built sites, sometimes hallucinates details or gets stuck in loops, and Perplexity itself says human supervision is strongly required for anything critical, such as financial transactions or bookings. Treat it as a capable assistant on bounded tasks, not an autopilot.

What it does well

It is genuinely free and genuinely cross-platform. This was the headline advantage over ChatGPT Atlas, and it is why Comet is still here and Atlas is not. Comet runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, costs nothing to download, and needs no account for basic browsing. For the large share of Australian businesses on Windows and Android, that makes it the standalone agentic browser they can actually use.

The research assistant is a real strength. Perplexity built its name on cited, search-first answers, and that DNA carries into the browser. Asking a question about the page in front of you and getting a sourced answer back beats the copy-paste-into-a-chatbot dance, and the citations make it easier to trust than a bare summary.

The agent does real work on bounded tasks. For repetitive, well-defined jobs — gathering links, comparing a few products, pulling details off several pages into one summary — it does the legwork while you do something else. That is the first time an AI-in-a-browser has felt like more than a faster search box.

Background assistants are a genuine step further. Scheduling an autonomous agent to run a daily briefing or a recurring check, with no session open, was a capability Atlas never matched — if you are willing to pay for Max and trust the agent with the access it needs.

Where it falls short

The security story is the worst in the category, and Perplexity's early response was poor. This is the big one. Because the agent reads web pages and acts on logged-in sites, it is vulnerable to prompt injection — hidden malicious instructions buried in a page that hijack the agent into doing something you never asked. With Comet this is not theoretical. Brave published research showing Comet would follow instructions hidden in page content when asked simply to "summarise this page," and a follow-up showing instructions could be smuggled in via text invisible to a human but readable by the browser's screenshot OCR. Separately, LayerX Security disclosed an exploit it called CometJacking, which it said could exfiltrate a user's sensitive data to an attacker-controlled server — and reported that when it first disclosed the flaw, Perplexity responded that it saw no security impact and marked it not applicable. Independent testing has put Comet far more exposed to phishing and web attacks than a traditional browser. Perplexity has shipped fixes since, but the pattern — repeated, demonstrated agent hijacks and an initial brush-off — is the single most important thing to weigh before you let this agent near anything sensitive.

The good stuff is behind a paywall, in US dollars. The browser is free, but the full agent needs a paid Perplexity plan from US$20/month, and the autonomous background agents need the US$200/month Max tier. Free users get a nicer research sidebar and not much of the agent that makes the headlines.

The agent is still unreliable on hard tasks. By Perplexity's own account it struggles with complex multi-step workflows and custom sites, hallucinates details, and can loop. It is slower than doing an intricate task yourself, and it needs watching. Impressive, not yet dependable.

It is yet another browser to adopt. Comet wants to replace Chrome, not sit beside it. Moving your daily browsing — logins, extensions, habits — into a newer browser from a fast-moving startup is a bigger commitment than installing an app, and worth being deliberate about.

Almost nothing about it is Australian. No Australian data residency story and no local support — though the App Store does sell Perplexity Pro in Australian dollars at A$30.00/month with GST included, at effectively the web price. (Corrected 21 Sep 2026.) It is a global product you can use here, not a product built with Australians in mind.

Australian fit

Pricing: US dollars on the web with no native AUD price there; Perplexity charges 10% GST to Australian customers and GST-registered businesses can generally claim it back, but Perplexity does not itemise an AUD or GST line on its public pricing, so confirm at checkout. Buying Pro through the Comet app is Australian dollars with GST already in the number — A$30.00/month or A$300.00/year — at effectively the same cost. (Corrected 21 Sep 2026.) Data residency: Perplexity publishes no Australian data-residency option for consumer plans or Comet; browsing data and assistant activity sit in Perplexity's infrastructure with no onshore guarantee — and with an agent acting on logged-in sites, that is a material gap for Privacy Act-sensitive work. Support: no Australian entity, presence or local-time support. Availability: this is the bright spot — Comet is free worldwide with no regional locks, and Australians can download and use it on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, so unlike Atlas — which OpenAI discontinued on 9 August 2026 — local users can actually run it. But there is nothing Australia-specific inside it. Australian Fit: 2/5.

Score

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good (16–20).

Australian Fit is 2/5, below the 4/5 threshold in our methodology, so Comet cannot be named a category Top Pick regardless of its score — the raw 16/25 still earns an honest four stars.

Bottom line

If you want to try an agentic browser today, Comet is the one you can actually run. It is free, it is on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and the research assistant is a real upgrade on tabbing back and forth to a chatbot. For most Australians — who are on Windows and Android, where Atlas never went before OpenAI switched it off — Comet is the most realistic way to see where AI browsing is heading.

If your work touches client data, money or anything regulated, be very careful with the agent. The prompt-injection and data-exfiltration findings against Comet are real, repeated and demonstrated by outside researchers, and Perplexity's initial response to one of them was to wave it off. Keep the agent away from logged-in banking and any system holding personal information, supervise what it does, and do not schedule a background agent against sensitive accounts. The convenience is not yet worth the exposure for serious work.

If you mainly want a strong research assistant, Comet plays to Perplexity's strengths, and the free sidebar gets you a long way before you ever pay. If you also want the agent to act across sites, the US$20/month Pro plan is the sensible entry point, and Max is only worth it if scheduled background agents genuinely save you more than they cost.

If you were choosing between Comet and ChatGPT Atlas, that choice is settled. OpenAI discontinued Atlas on 9 August 2026, having announced the deprecation on 9 July. Comet won on access — free, cross-platform, runnable by everyone — and on research pedigree; Atlas never left the Mac. If you want OpenAI's agentic browsing now, it lives in the ChatGPT desktop app and a ChatGPT Chrome extension. Comet still is not ready to be trusted with sensitive, logged-in work.

Frequently asked questions

Is Comet free in Australia?

Yes. The Comet browser is free to download and use on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, with no subscription and no regional locks since March 2026 — no account is needed for basic browsing. The full agent rides a paid Perplexity plan (Pro from US$20/month, ~A$28 ex-GST), and the autonomous background agents need the US$200/month Max tier.

What platforms does Comet run on?

All the major ones. Comet launched on Windows and macOS in July 2025, Android in November 2025 and iOS in March 2026. That reach was its key advantage over ChatGPT Atlas, which stayed macOS-only and was discontinued on 9 August 2026.

Is Comet safe to use?

The browser is fine for ordinary browsing, but its agent carries a serious, repeatedly demonstrated risk. Outside researchers at Brave showed the agent could be hijacked by hidden instructions on a web page, and LayerX disclosed a data-exfiltration exploit it called CometJacking — which Perplexity initially marked as not applicable. Perplexity has shipped fixes since. Keep the agent away from banking and accounts holding personal data, and watch what it does.

Do I need to pay to use the agent in Comet?

Largely, yes. The free tier gives you the research sidebar; the full agent that clicks and acts across sites needs a paid Perplexity Pro plan (from US$20/month), and the scheduled, autonomous background agents are a Max-tier (US$200/month) feature.

Does Perplexity store my Comet data in Australia?

No. Perplexity publishes no Australian data-residency option for consumer plans or Comet. Browsing data and assistant activity sit in Perplexity's infrastructure with no onshore guarantee, which is a material gap for Privacy Act-sensitive work — especially with an agent acting on logged-in sites.

How is Comet different from just using Perplexity?

Comet puts Perplexity inside a full web browser, so it can see the page you are on and — with a paid plan — click and act across sites for you. The standalone Perplexity app can search and answer with citations, but it does not live in your browser or take actions on the sites you are logged into.

Read next

• ChatGPT Atlas post-mortem: the agentic browser OpenAI switched off on 9 August 2026
• Perplexity review: the answer engine, tested for Australia
• ChatGPT review: the default AI assistant, tested for Australia
• How we score AI tools — our review methodology

Sources

• https://www.perplexity.ai/comet (primary; product page)
• https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/the-new-comet-assistant (primary; assistant capabilities, tier limits)
• https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/perplexitys-comet-ai-browser-now-free-max-users-get-new-background-assistant/ (primary-adjacent; free release + Max background assistant)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(browser) (secondary; platform launch dates, Chromium/Blink engine, CometJacking)
• https://brave.com/blog/comet-prompt-injection/ (secondary; indirect prompt injection)
• https://brave.com/blog/unseeable-prompt-injections/ (secondary; screenshot/OCR injection)
• https://simonwillison.net/2025/Aug/25/agentic-browser-security/ (secondary; analysis of Comet injection)
• https://cyberpress.org/perplexity-comet-browser-flaw/ (secondary; LayerX CometJacking disclosure)
• https://www.eesel.ai/blog/perplexity-comet-pricing (secondary; Free / Comet Plus / Pro / Max breakdown)
• https://www.finout.io/blog/perplexity-pricing-in-2026 (secondary; Pro US$20, Max US$200)
• https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/perplexity/perplexitys-ai-browser-comet-is-now-free-for-everyone-heres-how-to-download-it (secondary; free worldwide, no account)

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