Perplexity halves Agent API web_search and fetch_url tool prices
Perplexity cut its Agent API web_search tool price in half to $0.0025 per invocation and fetch_url to $0.00025, and applied the same cut to SDK search queries run inside its sandbox tool.
web_search $0.005 per invocation ($5 per 1,000); fetch_url $0.0005 per invocation; SDK search queries inside the sandbox tool billed at $0.005 per request (captured 2026-07-21).
web_search $0.0025 per invocation ($2.50 per 1,000); fetch_url $0.00025 per invocation; in-sandbox SDK search queries now bill at $0.0025 per request, explicitly documented as 'same as web_search'. people_search, finance_search ($0.005 each) and the sandbox per-session fee ($0.03) are unchanged, as are Sonar token/request pricing, the $5.00-per-1,000 Search API, and Embeddings rates.
Proof of change
Perplexity AI's pricing pages, as we captured them on two dates.
These values appear in only one of the two captures. That can mean a page-layout difference rather than a price move — read the images, not just the list.
Showing the whole page as captured — scroll either panel, or open it at full size.
Show 2 other pages we compared
These values appear in only one of the two captures. That can mean a page-layout difference rather than a price move — read the images, not just the list.
Showing the whole page as captured — scroll either panel, or open it at full size.
These values appear in only one of the two captures. That can mean a page-layout difference rather than a price move — read the images, not just the list.
Showing the whole page as captured — scroll either panel, or open it at full size.
- 3 pages had no counterpart in the earlier capture and are not shown.
Both images are our own captures, taken on the dates shown. The pixels are unmodified — nothing is retouched, and where a region is highlighted the marker is drawn over the image, not into it. Open either capture to see it at full resolution.
Perplexity’s Agent API documentation now lists web_search at $0.0025 per invocation and fetch_url at $0.00025 per invocation — both exactly half the $0.005 and $0.0005 rates captured on 2026-07-21. The cut also flows through to the sandbox tool: SDK search queries issued from inside a sandbox container now bill at $0.0025 per request, with the docs explicitly noting the rate is “same as web_search.”
The change is corroborated by the page’s own worked examples: the “Agent API Web Search” cost example totals a $0.0025 web_search line item, and the “Agent API Research Preset” example sums $0.0025 for web_search plus $0.00025 for fetch_url — both consistent with the new, lower rate card rather than a rendering artifact.
No other Agent API meter moved: people_search and finance_search stay at $0.005 per invocation, and the sandbox per-session fee holds at $0.03. Sonar token pricing, the Sonar per-request search fee by context size, the $5.00-per-1,000 Search API, and Embeddings API rates were all re-verified unchanged. Separately, Perplexity’s perplexity.ai/pro consumer landing page — blocked by a bot wall at the last several checks — loaded cleanly on 2026-07-29 and confirmed Pro and Max plan prices are unchanged, while surfacing a new “limited time” 35,000-credit signup bonus on Max not present on 2026-07-21.
Perplexity cut its Agent API web_search tool price in half, to $0.0025 per invocation from $0.005, and fetch_url to $0.00025 from $0.0005. The same cut flowed through to SDK search queries issued inside the sandbox tool, now $0.0025 per request and documented as "same as web_search." people_search, finance_search, and the $0.03 sandbox per-session fee were unchanged, as were Sonar, Search API, and Embeddings rates — corroborated by the docs' own worked cost examples, which total to the new lower figures.