M
MAI assistant for chat, web search, writing and images at work and home
Free, from $18/mo
DuckDuckGo vs Perplexity AI
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
D
Choose DuckDuckGo if…
- you want a free plan to start with
- you work on iOS, Android, macOS
- you're in its core audience: privacy-conscious internet users, everyday searchers
P
Choose Perplexity AI if…
- you need an API to build on
- you're in its core audience: researchers, knowledge workers
Side by side
Feature DuckDuckGo Perplexity AI
Pricing modelFreePaid
Starting priceFree—
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your contentNo—
Model choice—
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, ChromeWeb, API
CategoryAI SearchAI Search
CompanyDuck Duck Go, Inc.Perplexity
Based inUnited States—
Founded20082022
Part of——
Key features
D DuckDuckGo
- Private web search
- Duck.ai chat available from the search box
- Browsers for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows
- Browser extension that blocks web trackers
- Email Protection service
- Themes and search settings
P Perplexity AI
- Answers questions using live web search
- Search API with Standard and Fast Search modes
- Agent API running OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other models
- Built-in tools: web, image, people and finance search
- Code sandbox sessions for agents
- pplx-embed embedding models
- Orchestrator API with per-token billing
- Decisions API that charges for input tokens only
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
DuckDuckGo
FreeFree
Perplexity AI
Search API$5.00 per 1K requests (Standard); $1.00 per 1K (Fast Search)
Agent API toolsFrom $0.50 per 1K calls
Embeddings API$0.004–$0.05 per 1M tokens
Decisions API$0.01–$0.02 per 1M input tokens
Strengths and limitations
DuckDuckGo
- Search is described as private and free
- Browsers available for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows
- Free tracker-blocking extension
- AI chat (Duck.ai) built into the search experience
- The home page does not describe Duck.ai's features or which AI models it uses
- No API or developer access listed
Perplexity AI
- Published per-request and per-token API pricing
- Requests rejected with a 429 error are not billed on the Orchestrator API
- Access to models from several vendors through one Agent API
- Decisions API output tokens are free
- Search API bills successful requests even when they return no results
- Per-token model rates are on separate pages rather than in the main pricing overview
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy