Perplexity may have joined Anthropic in ‘trolling’ Sam Altman’s OpenAI after the ChatGPT maker announced plans to test advertisements in the chatbot. Perplexity has reportedly confirmed that it will not introduce ads into chatbot responses. This way, the AI startup is distancing itself from OpenAI’s emerging ad-based monetisation strategy and aligning itself more closely with Anthropic’s approach to AI products. Speaking at a recent roundtable with reporters, Perplexity executives said that the AI search startup plans to rely on subscription and enterprise revenue rather than advertising, a move that appears to align with Anthropic’s recent criticism of ads in conversational AI tools.Earlier this month, Anthropic added fuel to a growing debate within the AI industry by publicly mocking OpenAI’s shift toward ads in ChatGPT through a series of Super Bowl commercials. In these ads, the company highlighted how advertising could change chatbot interactions. In one of the 30-second spots, Anthropic shows a routine fitness question being interrupted mid-response by an unsolicited promotion for shoe insoles. In another, when a user asks a chatbot how to communicate better with their mother, an ad for a mature dating service appears that connects“sensitive cubs with roaring cougars.”While OpenAI has begun testing ads for US users of its free and $8-a-month ChatGPT Go tier, Perplexity is simultaneously expanding its enterprise sales push, targeting organisations and professional users instead of ad-supported growth.

What Perplexity is focusing on instead of ads

According to a Business Insider report, Perplexity is expanding its sales strategy and is now focusing on large organisations and professional users, such as finance professionals, CEOs, and doctors. The company currently has five people on its enterprise sales team but plans to increase hiring in this area. This approach pits Perplexity against companies such as Glean, which enable employees to search internal files and data using AI.The report further adds that executives said Perplexity will prioritise revenue and customer retention over metrics such as the number of questions answered. While the company did not disclose detailed financial figures, it said revenue grew 4.7 times last year, reaching $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by October 2025. Perplexity also said it will continue offering a free tier, though with certain limits.The move comes amid scepticism in Silicon Valley. At an AI conference last year, investors informally voted Perplexity as the company they would most likely bet against, citing concerns around the broader AI market. Still, Perplexity said it has been “busy building” rather than focusing on hype, with executives arguing that ads within AI responses can affect user trust.The move represents a shift for the company, which was among the early AI firms to experiment with advertising. In 2024, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said on a podcast that he expected ads to eventually become the company’s main monetisation model. “I think with advertising we could be really, really profitable,” Srinivas said in 2024.