Perplexity has introduced a new revenue-sharing initiative under which $42.5 million will be distributed to publishers whose content appears in AI search results. The program is tied to the new $5/month Comet Plus subscription, from which media outlets receive as much as 80% of the revenue.
Through this model, publishers will earn money every time their articles generate traffic via Perplexity’s Comet browser, appear in searches, or are included in AI assistant tasks. The idea is to recognize the fact that clicks and visits no longer come solely from humans, but also from AI agents that use content in different contexts.
The program arrives at a time when Perplexity is under pressure from active copyright lawsuits — the most prominent being News Corp’s Dow Jones case, as well as cease-and-desist orders from Forbes and Condé Nast. In this sense, the move can also be seen as an attempt at compromise with publishers.
CEO Aravand Srinivas described Comet Plus as “the equivalent of Apple News+ — but for both AI and people who consume internet content.” Pro and Max plan subscribers get Comet Plus automatically included in their packages, while all revenue, after deducting computing costs, goes to publishers.
The model represents one of the first serious attempts to economically acknowledge the role of AI in generating traffic and to provide publishers with a new source of income. However, the question remains whether $5 a month, once divided among many media outlets, will be a meaningful amount for companies struggling with declining traditional revenues.
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