What does a Perplexity API request actually cost?
A standard Search API request costs $0.005, which is $5 per 1,000. That request can carry up to five queries, and it is still billed as one unit. Invalid, rate-limited and failed requests are not billed at all.
The fast mode costs $0.001 per request. It returns the same response format with lower latency, so it suits autocomplete and voice agents where speed matters more than depth.
Neither price includes a written answer. If you want prose with citations, you either call the Agent API or run your own model over the returned snippets. The Agent API adds tool costs such as $2.50 per 1,000 web searches, plus the model’s own token bill.
That split is why some teams move to Tavily. A single call can return results and a short answer, which removes one integration step and one bill. The trade-off is less control over which model writes the answer.
When is Perplexity the right choice?
Perplexity is strongest when you want ranked SERP-style results with page text already extracted. The pricing is transparent, five queries share a billing unit, and the extracted text length does not change the fee.
It is weaker when you need full-site crawling. The Search API returns results, not an entire domain. Firecrawl and similar crawlers are the right tool for that job, and they are priced per page or per credit.
It is also weaker when your finance team wants one predictable invoice. Search fees, tool fees and model tokens arrive as separate line items, and the total depends on how your agent behaves at runtime.
How to compare answers fairly
Answer quality is not priced. Two providers can charge the same $5 per 1,000 requests and return very different snippets. The only reliable test is your own query set with your own evaluation criteria.
Build a set of fifty real questions, then score each provider on whether the cited page contains the answer. Track cost per correct answer rather than cost per request. That metric exposes providers that look cheap but require two calls to be useful.
Check the billing rules too. Perplexity bills a successful response even when it returns no results, while Serper only deducts credits for successful responses. Firecrawl does not charge for a scrape that returns nothing, but it does charge one credit for a 403 or 404 page.