Though there's no shortage of AI tools to choose from nowadays, one tool I think is extremely underrated is Perplexity. If you aren't familiar with it, Perplexity is an AI-powered conversational search engine that uses “advanced AI” to search the internet in real time. The way Perplexity and AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini work is slightly different.

The latter are designed to be conversational AI assistants and are great for creative writing, brainstorming, and problem-solving. They're built for back-and-forth conversation. On the other hand, Perplexity's core strength is actively browsing the web in real time and retrieving relevant information for you. It pulls information from live web sources, cites them, and summarizes them conversationally. And while chatbots like ChatGPT can certainly browse the web to answer questions, that’s neither their default behavior nor their main focus.

However, most people (which admittedly includes me until a few weeks ago) aren’t aware that this AI search engine can do a lot more than just answer questions. Beyond simple queries, Perplexity has several underrated features.

Deep Research mode

Perplexity can do a lot more than basic search

One AI feature I think is underrated in general (not just limited to Perplexity) is Deep Research. However, since Perplexity excels at real-time web search, it easily outperforms most other AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini that offer a Deep Research mode. Deep Research is a mode Perplexity launched in February 2025, and it's designed to conduct in-depth research and analysis. The best description of the tool is its name itself — it quite literally performs in-depth research on your behalf.

Like most AI tools that offer this feature, Perplexity limits free users to three Deep Research queries per day. To use the feature, all you need to do is select Deep Research from the mode selector. On one of my Perplexity accounts (free tier), the Deep Research option appears as a separate toggle.

If you're wondering, "Hey, Perplexity already excels at searching for information, how is Deep Research any different?" — the key difference lies in depth and process. A regular Perplexity search gives you quick, summarized answers from the web, while Deep Research takes things several steps further. Perplexity explains that the mode “iteratively searches, reads documents, and reasons about what to do next, refining its research plan as it learns more about the subject areas.”

The Deep Research mode essentially aims to replicate the way a human researches a topic. Once the mode is done conducting its research, it synthesizes everything into an in-depth report. I've tested ChatGPT and Gemini’s Deep Research modes and even paired Gemini's mode with NotebookLM, but Perplexity's version is certainly the most natural and comprehensive one I’ve tried so far.

Perplexity Labs

Full fledged projects, within minutes

The next feature is one I didn’t know existed until a couple of weeks ago. Labs is a productivity tool within Perplexity that is fully capable of creating complete projects on your behalf. It combines all of Perplexity’s strongest suits, like code generation, Deep Research, and chart and image creation, to put together any project you’d like. Unlike the Deep Research mode or regular Perplexity search, Labs goes one step further and actually creates full-fledged projects.

When you generate a project in Labs, all the files Perplexity creates, including any HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, documents, spreadsheets, charts, or images, are stored in the Assets tab. Unfortunately, the only catch is that the Labs feature is limited to Pro subscribers.

Keep in mind that the Labs mode is best when you need to create something comprehensive and multi-layered. It’s ideal for projects that require multiple components working together, since Perplexity can handle everything from generating the code to producing visuals and written content in one go.

I’ve used Labs to create entire websites, reports, mini apps, and much more. For instance, I recently created a Snakes and Ladders game using Java for my semester project, and I wanted to create a website to showcase it. Instead of spending a couple of hours doing it myself, I let Perplexity handle it for me, and as I expected, the result was pretty incredible. It took Perplexity around eight minutes to create a full-fledged website for me, and it investigated 45 different sources to do so.

There’s also a separate Steps section that displays the entire process Perplexity followed to build your project. It breaks down each stage so you can see exactly how it reached the final result.

Study Mode

This one's for the students

I’m currently majoring in Computer Science, and whenever I’m testing an AI tool, the first thing I usually check is whether it can help me study smarter. Perplexity has been a game-changing tool for my studies, and the Study Mode the company launched not too long ago is just one more reason to keep using it. Perplexity's Study Mode is designed to help you study better and actually understand the content you're learning.

When students typically use AI to study, they often simply ask the AI any questions they have or to summarize the content they need to study, and that's it. What most don't realize is that AI's capabilities extend much further than just answering questions or summarizing notes. For instance, if you're using Perplexity to study and are having the entire conversation in one thread, you can test your knowledge by generating flashcards or a quiz. The tool will use the context of your conversation to tailor the questions specifically to what you’ve been studying.

Typically, when you use an AI tool to study and ask it a question, the response you get is often answer-first. The steps needed to actually solve the question on hand usually come later. Perplexity’s Study Mode flips that approach. Instead of jumping straight to the final answer, it focuses on guiding you through the reasoning process step by step. This makes it especially useful for subjects like math, programming, or physics, where understanding how you get to the answer matters just as much as the answer itself.

The mode also adjusts the way it explains a concept or teaches a topic to your skill level by asking thoughtful questions to know where you stand. Study Mode is available for all verified student accounts and can be accessed by hitting the Study icon in the search mode toggles. If you aren’t a student, you can trigger the mode with a query that includes the term study intent.

Perplexity can do much more than answer questions

For the longest time, I thought the only thing Perplexity could do was browse the web in real-time and answer any questions you may have with citations. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that! So, diving deeper into the platform really opened my eyes.