Perplexity is an AI search and answer engine that returns concise answers grounded in live web data and backed by sources. The Perplexity connector lets your RShift Sites app call the Perplexity API with a shared connection. It’s designed for apps that need fresh, source-backed information rather than static or training-only knowledge.
Perplexity is available as an app + chat connector: one shared connection that works in the project chat while you build and in your published apps.
With Perplexity, your app can:
- Search the live web and get ranked results with titles, links, snippets, and dates
- Answer questions with current information from the web and cite the sources
- Search only academic papers or only SEC filings when a question calls for it
- Turn a single question into a long-form research report
- Pick a faster or a more thorough model for each request
Perplexity is a good fit when your app depends on recent, source-backed information such as news, research, market intelligence, or fact verification.
Two ways to connect
When adding a connection, you choose between two options. They differ in what your app can do and who bills the usage.
| Capability | Managed by RShift Sites | Use your own credentials |
|---|---|---|
| Web search results with sources (Search API) | Yes | Yes |
| Cited answers and grounded chat (Sonar models) | No | Yes |
| Academic and SEC filings search modes | No | Yes |
| Deep research reports | No | Yes |
| Perplexity account and API key needed | No | Yes |
| Usage billed by | RShift Sites, through workspace credits | Perplexity, on your Perplexity account |
On a managed connection, RShift Sites builds search features only. When you ask for summaries or chat-style answers, RShift Sites combines Perplexity search results with RShift Sites AI, which bills its own AI usage. If you ask for grounded chat, deep research, or academic or SEC search, RShift Sites tells you in chat that those need your own Perplexity API key and does not build them on the managed connection.
Common use cases and example apps
These examples show what you can build with Perplexity, each with a prompt to start from.
| Example app | Example prompt | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sales prep assistant | Use Perplexity and build a sales prep assistant that gathers company context before each call. | Pull company overviews, recent news, and leadership changes with live search. The app runs Perplexity searches before a meeting and presents a concise, cited briefing for sales reps. |
| Competitor research tool | Use Perplexity and build a competitor research tool that summarizes funding, launches, and positioning changes. | Summarize market activity across many sources at once. The app runs several Perplexity searches in parallel and aggregates the cited results into a research dashboard. |
| Regulatory tracker | Use Perplexity and build an app that tracks regulatory updates and policy changes for our industry. | Monitor new rulings and compliance updates from recent sources. The app queries Perplexity on a schedule and surfaces newly published or updated information with citations. |
| Fact-checking app | Use Perplexity and build a fact-checking app that verifies a statement against supporting and contradicting sources. | Check claims against live sources. The app accepts a statement as input and returns a synthesized verdict with cited references. |
| Academic research assistant | Use Perplexity and build a research assistant that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers only. | Answer open-ended questions from scholarly sources. The app uses Perplexity’s academic search mode to generate structured, cited responses. Needs your own credentials. |
| Deep research report generator | Use Perplexity and build a tool that produces a long-form research report on a topic with sources. | Turn one question into a full report. The app calls Perplexity’s deep research model, which runs many queries and synthesizes a report in a single request. Needs your own credentials. |
How to connect Perplexity
Who can create Perplexity connections depends on your plan and workspace settings. App + chat connectors are available by default on Free, Pro, and Business plans. On Enterprise plans, they are effectively disabled at first: Who can create connections and clients defaults to No one until an admin changes it in Connectors → Admin settings → App + chat connectors.
When adding a connection, you choose between two options:
- Managed by RShift Sites: RShift Sites provides and manages the credentials for you. Web search only. Each search spends workspace credits.
- Use your own credentials: connect with your own Perplexity API key for the full Perplexity API, and manage billing in Perplexity.
When the connection is created, you can link it to the projects where you want to use it. Anyone building in a project can ask RShift Sites in the project chat to link their project to it.
Follow the setup steps below for the option you want.
Managed by RShift Sites
Choose this option for the fastest setup. You don’t need a Perplexity account or API key. The managed connection supports the Perplexity Search API only: web search results with sources, filtered by domain or recency.
Usage and billing
Each successful search request spends RShift Sites credits from the workspace that owns the project, at the rate in Pricing below. See Credits and usage for how usage-based credits work.
A workspace can make up to 1,000 managed search requests per 24 hours across all of its projects. Requests beyond that limit fail until the window passes. If the workspace runs out of credits, search requests fail until you top up.
Set up the managed connection
To create the managed connection:
Open Perplexity in Connectors
Open Connectors and select Perplexity. For the other places to open the catalog from, see Where to find connectors.
Add a connection
Click Add connection.
Name the connection
In Display name, name the connection (for example, Perplexity). This name is only used inside RShift Sites to identify the connection.
Choose Managed by RShift Sites
Under Authentication, select Managed by RShift Sites. No credential fields appear for this option.
Choose who can use this connection
Managed connections are shared with the entire workspace by default. To limit who can use the connection, click Restrict to specific people under Sharing.
See Who can use connections and clients for more information.
Connect
Review the usage note above the button. It states that usage is billed through RShift Sites credits and that by enabling the connection you agree to Perplexity’s terms of service. Then click Connect.
Use your own credentials
Choose this option to use the full Perplexity API, including cited answers, grounded chat, academic and SEC search modes, and deep research, and to manage billing directly with Perplexity.
You can create multiple Perplexity connections using different API keys, which is useful for separating environments (for example, development and production) or managing spend per environment.
Prerequisites
Before connecting Perplexity with your own credentials, make sure you have:
- A Perplexity account with permission to manage billing and API keys, and a payment method or API credits set up
- A Perplexity API key
- Permission to create connections in your RShift Sites workspace (see Who can create connections and clients)
Step 1: Get a Perplexity API key
A Perplexity API key lets your RShift Sites app authenticate with the Perplexity API. You can create multiple keys in Perplexity.
To create a Perplexity API key:
Open the Perplexity API console
Sign in to the Perplexity API console with your Perplexity account.
Set up your API group and billing
If this is your first key, open Settings and enter your organization details (name, address, and tax details). Then open Billing and click Add payment method, or add API credits. Keys without credits return quota errors.
Create a key
Open API keys and click Generate API Key. Give the key a descriptive name, for example RShift Sites integration.
Copy the key
Copy the generated API key and store it securely. It starts with pplx-.
See Perplexity documentation for more: API groups and billing.
Step 2: Connect Perplexity to RShift Sites
You can create multiple connections using different API keys. To connect Perplexity with your key:
Open Perplexity in Connectors
Open Connectors and select Perplexity. For the other places to open the catalog from, see Where to find connectors.
Add a connection
Click Add connection.
Name the connection
In Display name, name the connection, for example Perplexity Prod. This name is only used inside RShift Sites to identify the connection.
Choose your own credentials
Under Authentication, select Use your own credentials.
Enter your API key
In API key, paste your Perplexity API key (it starts with pplx-). Get value next to the field opens the Perplexity API console.
Choose who can use this connection
Under Sharing, the connection is private to you by default and shows a Private label. To share it, click Share with others. Then add workspace members by email, or click Invite entire workspace to make the connection available to everyone in your RShift Sites workspace.
See Who can use connections and clients for more information.
Connect
Click Connect. RShift Sites verifies the key against the Perplexity API before saving the connection.
When connected, anyone building in a project can ask RShift Sites in the project chat to link their project to Perplexity (based on configured connection-level access). Your RShift Sites apps can then retrieve up-to-date, source-backed results from Perplexity.
Pricing
With Managed by RShift Sites and unified billing, search costs 20 RShift Sites credits per 1,000 searches, or 10 RShift Sites credits on Business plans. That matches Perplexity’s Search API list price of $5 per 1,000 requests.
RShift Sites meters each successful search request, so cost follows how many searches your app runs, not how many results each one returns. The credits come from the workspace that owns the project, as usage-based Run credits, whether the search runs in the preview while you build or in your published app. The connection’s page shows its estimated credit usage, which can take a moment to appear.
With Use your own credentials, Perplexity bills usage directly to your Perplexity account, and RShift Sites credits do not apply.
Limitations
The Perplexity connector cannot:
- Call anything beyond the Search API on a managed connection. Grounded chat, Sonar models, deep research, and the academic and SEC search modes need a connection that uses your own credentials. RShift Sites does not build those features on a managed connection.
- Rotate API keys automatically for connections that use your own credentials. To rotate, create a new key in Perplexity and update the RShift Sites connection.
- Support per-end-user Perplexity login. Each connection represents a single Perplexity account, or RShift Sites’ managed access, shared across all projects linked to it.
Troubleshooting
If requests through the connection fail, the sections below cover the most common errors and how to resolve them.
Managed connection: requests fail with 403 and "endpoint_not_allowed"
The app calls a Perplexity endpoint other than search, which the managed connection does not allow. Ask RShift Sites to rebuild the feature on Perplexity search results, or add a connection with Use your own credentials and link the project to it.
Managed connection: requests fail with 402
The workspace that owns the project has run out of credits. Top up credits for that workspace, and requests resume. See Credits and usage.
Own credentials: requests fail with 401 and "insufficient_quota"
The API key is valid, but the Perplexity account it belongs to has run out of API credits. Buy or top up API credits in the Perplexity API console for that account. A Pro subscription’s credits are managed separately.
Manage your {connector_0} connection
Connections are managed from Connectors: select {connector_0}, then open the connection.
- Unlink projects to remove {connector_0} access from specific projects while keeping the connection available for others. See Unlink projects from a connection for the steps.
- Delete the connection to remove it from the workspace entirely. Deleting is permanent. It removes the credentials from all linked projects, and app features that use {connector_0} stop working until a new connection is added. See Delete a connection for the steps and who can delete.