The most important AI providers compared

The following table shows ten of the best-known AI providers in direct comparison. The percentage values are deliberately kept simple and describe a comprehensible assessment based on four criteria: how easily can the offering be used without prior knowledge? How privacy-friendly is it from the perspective of a German user? What is the price-to-performance ratio? And how extensive are the features (text, image, voice, video and more)?

These values are a simplified, editorial assessment for rough orientation – not a scientific measurement and not legal advice. For business use with sensitive data, the respective provider article and the current contract terms should always be reviewed.

What the four criteria mean

Ease of use

How quickly can someone without technical knowledge get the hang of it? Most major providers perform similarly well here, because the basic principle – type in a question, get an answer – barely differs between them.

Data protection/GDPR friendliness

This is where the biggest differences show up. What matters most is where a company is headquartered and where its servers are located: providers based in the European Union, such as Mistral AI, don’t need to rely on international supplementary agreements, while US providers depend on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses. For providers with servers outside the EU or the USA, for example in China, particular caution is advisable with personal or business-sensitive data.

Price-performance

How much functionality do you get for the money spent? Free or very inexpensive offerings such as Meta AI or DeepSeek naturally score well here, even if they require compromises elsewhere.

Feature scope

How broad is the offering – pure text answers, or additionally image, voice, video, and the ability to independently handle multi-step tasks?

The ten providers in brief

OpenAI – ChatGPT

The best-known name in the field of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT covers text, image, voice and video in a single product and is developed further by OpenAI at short intervals. All the details on pricing and data protection are in the provider article on OpenAI; the individual model versions are explained on the ChatGPT models page.

Anthropic – Claude

Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI employees with a particular focus on safety. Claude is considered especially reliable with long texts and documents. More on this in the provider article on Anthropic and on the Claude models page.

Google – Gemini

Gemini is deeply embedded in Gmail, Google Docs and Search, and is especially practical for anyone already living in the Google ecosystem. Details in the provider article on Google and on the Gemini models page.

Microsoft – Copilot

Copilot is built directly into Windows, Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, making it especially strong in classic everyday office work. More in the provider article on Microsoft and on the Copilot models page.

xAI – Grok

Grok is closely integrated with the platform X, making it especially current when it comes to up-to-the-minute topics. Details in the provider article on xAI and on the Grok models page.

Meta – Meta AI and Llama

Meta AI is built directly into WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook for free and is financed through advertising rather than a subscription. Its technical foundation, Llama, can also be self-hosted. More in the provider article on Meta and on the Llama models page.

DeepSeek

The Chinese provider impresses with very low prices and strong performance on logic and programming tasks, but is critically reviewed by German data protection authorities because of its server location in China. Details including all models (V3, R1, V4) in the article on DeepSeek.

Mistral AI

The French company is Europe’s most important own answer to the US and Chinese AI corporations and scores especially well on data protection, since servers within the EU can be chosen. More, including all models (Large, Medium, Small), in the article on Mistral AI.

Perplexity AI

Perplexity works more like an answer engine than a classic chatbot: every statement is backed up with a source citation. Details in the provider article on Perplexity and on the Perplexity models page.

Moonshot AI – Kimi

Kimi is the chatbot from the Chinese company Moonshot AI and became internationally known through the openly available model Kimi K2, which performs especially strongly on programming and agentic tasks. As with DeepSeek: with standard use, the data ends up on servers in China. Details in the provider article on Kimi and on the Kimi models page.

Which provider suits whom?

Frequently asked questions about AI models

What is the difference between an AI provider and an AI model?

The provider is the company, such as OpenAI or Google. The model is the actual technology behind it, which powers one or more products – at OpenAI, the product is called ChatGPT, while the underlying models carry their own names such as GPT-5.6.

Which AI is the best?

That can’t be answered across the board. Depending on the task, budget and data protection requirements, different providers perform differently well – the comparison table above serves as initial orientation, while the linked individual articles provide the details.

Are all these AI providers allowed in Germany?

In principle, yes – there is no general ban on any of the providers named. However, for individual providers with server locations outside the EU, particular caution is advised with personal or business-sensitive data – details on this are in the respective provider article.

Do I always have to pay for good results?

No. Several providers offer usable free versions, such as Meta AI, DeepSeek, Kimi, or the basic versions of ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. For regular or more demanding use, an inexpensive entry-level subscription is usually worthwhile.

What does this have to do with Lukinski?

As a real estate company, we ourselves work intensively with artificial intelligence – for example with Lukinski AI, our own AI assistant for real estate questions, hosted in Germany. This cluster additionally puts the large, general-purpose AI providers into context, so that you can make an informed decision independent of our own offering.

Who is behind Kimi? The history of Moonshot AI

• Kimi website
• Moonshot AI website

Moonshot AI was founded in Beijing in March 2023. Among its founders is Yang Zhilin, an AI researcher with a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University who had previously co-authored well-known language model papers such as XLNet and Transformer-XL. Together with other co-founders, he built a company that Chinese media often mention in the same breath as ByteDance and OpenAI – as an example of a particularly ambitious AI startup.

Financially, Moonshot AI has been backed by, among others, the technology corporations Alibaba and Tencent as well as investors such as IDG Capital. Its company valuation rose considerably within a short time: from around 300 million US dollars at founding, to about 2.5 billion US dollars in early 2024, up to figures in the multi-billion US dollar range reported for early 2026. This makes Moonshot AI one of the most highly valued private AI companies in China.

From niche chatbot to internationally recognized model

Kimi initially became known as a Chinese-language chatbot. Its international breakthrough came in summer 2025 with the Kimi K2 model series, introduced as an open model with a very large parameter count, which caused a stir in expert circles because it could compete with considerably more expensive models from Western providers on benchmarks for programming tasks and agentic capabilities.

Kimi as a product: chat app, agent mode and API

For most users, Kimi is first and foremost the web and app interface at kimi.com. There, the model can be used like an ordinary chatbot for texts, translations, research or programming tasks. Since autumn 2025, Moonshot AI has additionally offered an extended agent mode, described in reports under names such as “OK Computer” or “Kimi Work.”

Agent mode

In this mode, Kimi can independently take on multi-step tasks: it can research on the web, create spreadsheets and simple multi-page websites, run Python code, and, according to Moonshot AI, read in several dozen files at once. For a case worker in property management, this could theoretically mean that a larger amount of documents – such as several utility bill statements or listing exposé drafts – is summarized in one pass. Important here: all uploaded content is processed on Moonshot AI’s servers, more on that below.

Kimi via the API

Developers and companies can also access the Kimi models via their own programming interface (API), for example to integrate them into existing software such as a CRM system or document management. This interface is offered directly by Moonshot AI as well as by several third-party providers, through which the open model weights can also be run on your own or European cloud infrastructure. This is the decisive difference from pure chat use: anyone who self-hosts the open weights also decides for themselves where the data is stored.

Rule of thumb: Kimi is not “one” product, but two – the convenient chat and agent access with data processing in China, and the openly available model weights, which can in principle also run on your own infrastructure.

Pricing models: what does Kimi cost?

For private use via the chat interface, Moonshot AI offers free basic use with restrictions on request volume and feature scope, supplemented by paid packages for more capacity. For developers and businesses, API billing by text volume (tokens) is the most relevant. The following figures reflect the publicly available price lists as of August 2026 – as with all AI providers, these prices can change on short notice, so it’s always worth checking Moonshot AI’s current pricing page before doing a business calculation.

Practical example: a property management company has 500 utility bill statements automatically summarized.

• 1,500 words per statement
• Around 750,000 words in total
• About 1 to 1.3 million input tokens
• K2 series: under 2 US dollars for input processing
• K3: correspondingly higher costs

On top of the input comes the usually more expensive output – the summary created.

Data protection and GDPR: what does the server location China mean?

For use at a German business, this point is the most important one: if you use Kimi via the website kimi.com or via Moonshot AI’s official API, your inputs are processed on servers in China. China currently has no so-called adequacy decision from the European Commission – this means the EU does not officially classify the level of data protection there as equivalent to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Similar concerns are also discussed with other Chinese AI providers such as DeepSeek.

According to Moonshot AI’s publicly available terms of use, entered content can also be used to further develop its own models. For purely private, non-binding use, that may be an acceptable risk. For a case worker who wants to process personal data from a lease, a credit report, or a customer inquiry, however, the starting position is different: here, the strict GDPR requirements for data processing apply, and transferring such data to a provider headquartered and running servers in China can hardly be made legally sound without additional contractual and technical safeguards.

Rule of thumb: anyone using Kimi for general research or non-binding text drafts without personal data involved takes on a different risk than someone entering tenant data, names, or contract content. The latter should be avoided without additional safeguards.

A conceivable alternative for privacy-sensitive use cases is running the open Kimi model weights on your own or European server infrastructure, so that the data never has to leave the country – however, this requires your own technical expertise and corresponding hardware or cloud costs. For businesses in the real estate industry looking for an AI solution with German hosting and without this configuration effort, specialized offerings such as Lukinski AI are available as an alternative, designed from the outset for German server locations and the industry’s requirements.

Strengths and weaknesses of Kimi

Who is Kimi suited for?

Kimi is particularly well suited to certain groups of users.

• Technically skilled users and developers
• Companies with their own hosting
• Programming and automation tasks

For real estate agents with listing exposé texts or property managers with correspondence, caution is advised as soon as personal data is involved. Here, a comparison with European providers is worthwhile.

Frequently asked questions about Kimi and Moonshot AI (FAQ)

Can Kimi be used for free?

Yes, there is free basic use with restrictions via the chat interface. For higher usage volumes or API integration, costs apply based on the amount of text processed.

Is Kimi safe for business or personal data?

When using Moonshot AI’s standard chat or API access, data is processed in China, for which there is no EU adequacy decision. Special caution is therefore advised for personal or contractually sensitive data from the real estate or finance sector.

What distinguishes Kimi from ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek?

Kimi differs from most Western providers mainly through the open release of its model weights. There are clear parallels with DeepSeek, another Chinese provider, regarding data protection issues and server location.

Can Kimi also be run without Chinese servers?

In principle yes, since the base models are released as open weights and can also be made available on European infrastructure via various third-party providers. However, this requires technical expertise and your own server capacity.

What does the model name K2 stand for?

K2 refers to the large model generation from Moonshot AI introduced in summer 2025, named after the second-highest mountain on Earth. Details on the individual K2 versions and their successors can be found on the in-depth models page.

More technical details on the individual model versions can be found on our page Kimi models in detail. A comparison of all ten AI providers covered in the cluster is available on the overview page.

Brief history and mission of xAI

• xAI website
• Open Grok directly

xAI was founded in 2023 with the stated goal of “understanding the true nature of the universe” – as the company’s official mission states. In practice, this means: xAI develops large AI language models, released under the name Grok. Unlike OpenAI or Anthropic, for example, which emerged as independent research companies, xAI has been closely intertwined with the platform X from the very start, which is also owned by Elon Musk. This connection is one of the most important differences from other major AI providers: Grok has direct access to posts made on X in real time, allowing it to react to current events even before they appear in traditional news sources.

For training and running its models, xAI uses its own supercomputer named Colossus, operated in the USA (state of Tennessee), which ranks among the most powerful AI data centers in the world. This infrastructure allows xAI to release new model versions at short intervals – a pace that is now considered one of the fastest in the industry.

Product overview: Grok as an app, on the web, and within X

Grok as a standalone app and website

Grok can be used just like ChatGPT or Gemini, as a standalone app (iOS and Android) or via the website grok.com. You type in a question or task and get a text answer, optionally with images or short videos. The interface is deliberately kept simple: an input field, a choice of mode (for example quick answer or deeper research), and the answer area. For people already familiar with another chatbot, switching to Grok takes only a few minutes.

Grok within X (Twitter)

The real distinguishing feature is its integration into X. There, Grok appears directly under posts and can, on request, provide context for a topic, summarize a post, or generate an accompanying image. Anyone already using X therefore has Grok automatically at hand, without installing an additional app. This close integration is both a strength and a point of contention: it gives Grok up-to-the-minute information, but also raises questions about the extent to which posts from X users are used for the AI – more on this in the data protection section.

Rule of thumb: anyone wanting to try Grok doesn’t need an X account – the app and the website grok.com work independently. Only those wanting to use the full integration within X additionally need an X profile.

Pricing models and subscription tiers (as of August 2026)

xAI tiers its offering into several levels, which differ mainly in the scope of use, access to the respective latest models, and additional features such as image and video generation.

For developers, or for companies wanting to integrate Grok into their own software, there is additionally a usage-based programming interface (API). There, billing is based on the amount of text processed, ranging from about 1 to 15 euros per million text units (tokens) depending on the model. For the vast majority of private users and small businesses, this is not relevant – one of the subscription tiers in the table above is generally sufficient.

Practical cost example: A trades business uses Grok for quote texts and market research.

• SuperGrok Lite: 10 euros/month, 120 euros/year
• SuperGrok: 30 euros/month, 360 euros/year
• SuperGrok better suited for X data and images

For most small businesses, SuperGrok offers the best ratio of feature scope to cost.

Data protection and GDPR assessment

Where is the data processed?

xAI is a US company; the servers and its own supercomputer Colossus are located in the USA. This means: anyone using Grok has their inputs processed on servers outside the European Union. This is not fundamentally prohibited, but – just as with other US AI providers – it requires an appropriate legal basis for the data transfer to the USA.

X user data as training data

One point that sets Grok apart from many competitors is its closeness to X. In the past, public posts from X users were used to train Grok, in some cases without those affected having actively consented – only an opt-out option in the account settings was provided. Because of this, the Irish data protection authority has already opened a review procedure against xAI, and the EU Commission is also examining, under the Digital Services Act, whether X carried out adequate risk assessments before integrating Grok. In response to the regulatory pressure, xAI has announced that it will no longer use public posts from users in the EU for training.

What does this mean in practice for a German private individual or a small business?

For everyday use as a chatbot, similar basic rules apply as with other AI providers:

• Do not enter sensitive personal data
• Do not share trade secrets
• No health data in the chat
• Review contract terms beforehand

Anyone using Grok within X: your own public posts can be analyzed, even though EU user data is excluded from training.

Rule of thumb: as long as ongoing supervisory proceedings are not concluded, Grok should be treated like any other US tool – good for general research and text drafts, but not for confidential customer data or contract content without first reviewing your own data protection obligations.

Strengths and weaknesses

Who is Grok suited for?

Grok fits several groups of users.

• Quick answers to up-to-the-minute questions
• A lot of work with social media content
• An inexpensive alternative to well-known chatbots
• Creative tasks with text, image and video

A real estate agent can research current discussions about a neighborhood before a sales conversation, and a property manager can draft a reply to a tenant inquiry.

For business applications in the real estate sector, where German hosting and a clearly traceable handling of customer data play a bigger role, it’s also worth taking a look at specialized alternatives such as Lukinski AI, which were developed specifically for this use case.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can Grok be used for free?

Yes, there is a free tier with a limited number of requests per time window and access to a simpler model. For regular or more intensive use, one of the paid tiers is worthwhile.

Do I need an X account to use Grok?

No. Grok can be used via its own app or the website grok.com without an X profile as well. Only direct integration into the X timeline requires an X account.

Are my chats with Grok used for training?

That depends on the respective settings and country of residence. For users from the EU, xAI has now excluded the use of public X posts for training; for direct chat inputs, it’s advisable to check the current privacy settings.

Is Grok GDPR-compliant?

xAI is under ongoing observation by European supervisory authorities, among other things because of the processing of X user data. A final legal assessment is still pending. For business use with particularly sensitive data, it’s advisable to conduct your own review beforehand or consider an alternative with European hosting.

What does Grok cost for companies that want to integrate it into their own software?

The programming interface (API) is billed according to the amount of text processed, ranging from about 1 to 15 euros per million tokens depending on the model. For simple use cases, one of the cheaper models is usually sufficient.

Anyone wanting to know in more detail which Grok model is suited for which purpose, and how the individual versions differ, will find the details on our Grok models comparison page.

From betting on OpenAI to its own AI operating system

• Microsoft Copilot website
• Open Copilot directly

By “AI operating system” we mean that Copilot today is no longer just a single app, but a layer that runs in the background across Windows, Office and Teams alike – similar to how an operating system itself is available across all programs.

Microsoft first invested in the then-unknown research lab OpenAI back in 2019. After the success of ChatGPT in late 2022, the company massively expanded this partnership and brought the underlying language models into almost every one of its own products: into the Bing search engine, into Windows, into Microsoft 365, and into GitHub’s developer tools. What started as the codename “Bing Chat” became the unified Copilot brand in 2023, which has since brought together all of Microsoft’s AI features under one name.

The partnership with OpenAI in transition

This partnership is no longer a one-way street. Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI and, in return, received exclusive access to its models via its own cloud platform, Azure. At the same time, OpenAI has meanwhile also become an independent competitor with its own consumer products, which is why the relationship between the two companies is regularly described as tense in trade press. In practice, this means: Microsoft continues to rely on OpenAI as its most important model supplier, but has deliberately broadened its base. Since 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot has additionally offered models from Anthropic, so that companies can choose between different AI models depending on the task, without switching providers.

Copilot is not a single AI model, but an interface behind which several models from different manufacturers work – Microsoft itself calls this its “Model Choice” strategy.

Copilot in everyday use: where it shows up

For beginners, it’s often confusing that “Copilot” is not a single product, but a family name for several, sometimes very different tools. The following overview shows the most important places it appears in normal everyday office work.

Copilot in Windows

Since Windows 11, Copilot has been integrated directly into the taskbar. A click opens a chat window that answers questions, explains system settings, or helps with drafting text. This basic version is free and, for many users, their very first point of contact with generative AI at all.

Copilot in Word, Excel and Outlook

In Word, Copilot drafts text templates, summarizes long documents, or adjusts the tone. In Excel, it can explain formulas on request, structure spreadsheets, or build initial analyses from raw data. In Outlook, it summarizes long email threads and suggests replies. This deep integration into the individual Office programs remains, to this day, the core advantage of Microsoft’s approach compared to pure chat tools: you don’t need to copy the text and paste it into a separate window, but keep working directly in the familiar document.

Copilot in Teams

In video conferences, Copilot can take notes live, generate a summary with a task list at the end, and flag open questions that were not answered during the meeting. For teams with many recurring meetings, this has meanwhile become one of the most frequently used features of all.

Copilot Pro and Microsoft 365 Premium

For private users and small self-employed people, there was for a long time a standalone subscription called Copilot Pro. Microsoft restructured this offering over the course of 2025: new customers have no longer been able to sign up for Copilot Pro on its own since October 2025; the features were instead moved into the new Microsoft 365 Premium package. Anyone who still has an existing Copilot Pro subscription can continue to use it, but a renewal is now only possible on a transitional basis.

Pricing and subscription tiers at a glance

Microsoft’s pricing structure is tiered and depends on whether you’re a private individual, a small business, or a larger organization. The following table shows the most important tiers as they stood in summer 2026. Since Microsoft regularly adjusts prices and they vary by region, the figures should be understood as guidance.

Important for businesses: the Business and Enterprise tiers are purely add-on licenses. Copilot cannot be purchased in isolation; it requires an existing Microsoft 365 or Office 365 license on top of which it is layered.

Data protection and GDPR: what actually applies

Business version and private version are not the same

When assessing data protection, a strict distinction must be made between the free consumer version and the business variants. For Microsoft 365 Copilot in business environments, the contractual privacy commitments that Microsoft gives to business customers anyway apply: inputs and company data are not used to train the general AI models, and the data stays within the contractually guaranteed boundaries of the respective Microsoft 365 tenant. For the free consumer version in Windows or in the private Bing Chat, on the other hand, different, considerably weaker commitments apply, as is usual for private consumer products.

The EU Data Boundary

For customers in the European Union, Microsoft operates what is known as the EU Data Boundary. It ensures that data belonging to European business customers is generally processed and stored in European data centers, for example in Frankfurt, Dublin or Amsterdam. Microsoft is continuing to expand this offering in 2026 and is gradually bringing local processing to further countries as well.

An important exception

Anyone relying on the EU Data Boundary should be aware of one point: since Microsoft additionally integrated Claude models from Anthropic into Copilot alongside the OpenAI models, requests that run via these models currently do not yet carry a full guarantee of the EU Data Boundary, since Anthropic hosts predominantly on servers in the USA. For everyday text work in Word or Excel, this is rarely relevant, but for sensitive data sets, it’s worth checking the current admin settings of the respective tenant.

Anyone working at a German company with personal or particularly sensitive data should check exactly which model is active for which application in the Copilot admin settings, rather than relying on a blanket assumption of “GDPR-compliant data protection.”

Strengths and weaknesses

Who is Microsoft Copilot suited for

The benefit is greatest for anyone who works with Office programs daily.

• Case workers in administrative offices
• Real estate agents and property managers with correspondence
• Accounting and sales
• Small offices doing spreadsheet work

Anyone wanting a standalone chat app without Microsoft ties will find cheaper alternatives elsewhere. For German hosting of property data or leases, Lukinski AI without a US cloud connection is worthwhile.

Practical example: what Copilot costs for a small office

A real estate office with eight employees uses Copilot as an add-on license.

• Around 22 euros per user/month
• About 176 euros in team costs/month
• A good 2,100 euros extra per year

Whether this is worthwhile depends on how much time employees spend on text work and email correspondence – exactly where Copilot comes in.

Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Copilot

Can Microsoft Copilot be used for free?

The basic version in Windows and in the browser is free. For full integration into Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, as well as priority access to more powerful models, a paid tier is required.

Which AI model is behind Microsoft Copilot?

Predominantly models from OpenAI, currently mainly from the GPT-5 series (GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” the technical model family behind ChatGPT), supplemented since 2025 by models from Anthropic. Which model is used in detail is explained on the linked in-depth page on the Copilot models.

Is Copilot Pro still available?

No, new customers have not been able to sign up for Copilot Pro since October 2025; the features have been moved into Microsoft 365 Premium. Existing subscriptions continue on a transitional basis.

Is Microsoft Copilot GDPR-compliant?

For business customers, contractual privacy commitments apply, including the EU Data Boundary, though with an exception for certain add-on models. The free consumer version is subject to weaker commitments than the business version.

Is Copilot worthwhile for small offices too?

Yes, especially if a lot of work involves Word, Excel or email correspondence. For very specific business applications with high data protection requirements, complementary, specialized solutions can make sense.

Anyone wanting to understand in more detail which Copilot variant uses which model, and how the individual tiers differ, will find a detailed comparison on the in-depth page Microsoft Copilot models in detail.

What is Perplexity AI? From search query to direct answer

• Perplexity website

In everyday use, it becomes clear what’s behind Perplexity AI, what using it looks like, what the subscription tiers currently cost, and what German users should keep in mind regarding data protection.

The basic idea: answers instead of link lists

Perplexity AI was founded in 2022 by a small team of former employees of large technology companies, among others with experience in AI research and the search engine field. The basic idea was clearly defined from the start: a search engine should not just list results, but summarize the information from them directly into an answer – in such a way that every statement can be traced back to a specific source. This combination of web search and AI text generation is called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG for short, in technical language. For practical use you don’t need to know this term, but you should know the principle behind it: the AI does not freely invent the answer from its training, but first searches for current sources on the internet and then summarizes them.

Brief history and mission

Within a few years, Perplexity AI has developed from a niche product for tech-savvy users into a serious alternative in the search engine market. The company has completed several large funding rounds and is now valued in the billions. Its stated mission is to make knowledge more accessible by ensuring answers are immediately understandable and verifiable. In 2025, Comet was added, its own AI-powered web browser that integrates Perplexity’s features directly into browsing – now available for desktop, Android and iOS. This means Perplexity is positioning itself not just as a search engine anymore, but increasingly as a complete research environment.

How does Perplexity work in practice?

Web version, app and browser

Perplexity can be used via the website, via mobile apps for iOS and Android, and via its own browser, Comet. The interface is deliberately kept simple: an input field where you type your question in plain German or English, below which the answer appears in text form, supplemented with numbered footnotes that point to the web pages used. Anyone wanting to dig deeper can click directly on any source and open the original page. For research involving images or diagrams, Perplexity can additionally include suitable graphics and, in some cases, self-generated visualizations.

Spaces: creating your own topic areas

One of the most practical features for everyday use is so-called Spaces. These let you create your own workspaces for a particular topic or project, into which you can additionally upload your own documents – such as listing exposés, contracts or market reports. All questions within a Space then draw on both the uploaded documents and the current web search. For someone working their way into a topic like real estate financing over several weeks, for example, this is much clearer than a long, unstructured chat history.

Model selection in the background: what happens when I ask a question?

For most users, this happens in the background without them noticing: Perplexity automatically decides which AI model is best suited for a request, combining its own lightweight models with access to large language models from other providers. Anyone who wants to, however, can also specify in the advanced settings which model should answer, or have several models respond to the same question at once and compare the results. Exactly how this interplay works, and which modes exist in detail, is explained in full on the in-depth models page: Perplexity AI models in detail.

The decisive difference from a classic chatbot is not the language model itself, but that Perplexity actively searches the web for fresh sources before every answer and openly names them.

Pricing models and subscription tiers at a glance (as of 2026)

Perplexity AI follows a classic freemium model with a free basic version and two paid tiers for heavy users. The following overview summarizes the state as of August 2026, though details can change at any time for such a fast-growing company.

For students, there is usually also a discounted education tier, and for businesses, Perplexity offers separate enterprise variants with additional administration and security features. For private or small-business use, the free version or the Pro subscription is generally entirely sufficient.

Data protection and GDPR: what users in Germany should know

Perplexity AI is a US company headquartered in the United States. This means: servers, data processing, and the large language models used in the background are technically located predominantly outside the European Union. Anyone searching via the web interface or the app sends their requests to US infrastructure, even though Perplexity now uses contractual mechanisms such as Standard Contractual Clauses – contract texts prescribed by the EU Commission intended to ensure a minimum level of data protection when transferring data to the USA – to legally safeguard the transfer of European data.

For private, everyday questions, this is unproblematic for most users. The picture changes when sensitive business information is involved – such as confidential property data, customer details, or internal calculations from the real estate industry. Before entering such information, it’s worth pausing for a moment: do I really want to send this information to an American cloud service? Anyone who regularly works professionally with sensitive real estate or financial data and values hosting and processing within Germany can now also find specialized alternatives such as Lukinski AI, which were developed specifically for this use case.

A rule of thumb for everyday use: anything you would also tell a stranger at a call center abroad, you can also enter into a US AI. For anything meant to stay confidential, caution is advisable.

Strengths and weaknesses of Perplexity AI

Like any tool, Perplexity has clear areas where it is particularly well suited, and others where different AI tools are the better choice.

Who is Perplexity AI suited for?

Perplexity AI is suited to anyone who regularly conducts research with traceable sources.

• Market research and current figures
• Tracking changes in legislation
• General knowledge questions
• Getting started without prior AI knowledge

For long creative texts or complex data analyses, a classic chatbot is often better suited.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can Perplexity AI be used for free?

Yes, there is a permanently free version with a limited number of in-depth research queries per day. For more intensive use, the Pro subscription is usually worthwhile.

Is Perplexity AI a search engine or a chatbot?

A bit of both: technically, Perplexity combines a classic web search with a language model that summarizes the search results into an answer. That’s why it is also referred to as an answer engine.

Can I use Perplexity in German?

Yes, questions and answers work reliably in German as well, even though some of the underlying models were originally trained more heavily on English.

Are Perplexity’s answers always correct?

No. The source citations make verification considerably easier, but they do not replace your own critical review, especially for important business or legal decisions.

How does Perplexity Pro differ from Perplexity Max?

Pro is aimed at individual users with regular research needs, while Max is aimed at power users and small teams who need the highest usage limits and access to several top-tier models at once.

Which specific AI models Perplexity combines in the background and how the individual research modes work technically is shown on the detailed models in-depth page: Perplexity AI models in detail.