Perplexity Offers Free AI Tools to Students Globally

In a significant move poised to reshape academic research and learning, Perplexity, the rapidly ascending AI-powered answer engine, has launched a global initiative offering students worldwide up to two years of free access to its premium Perplexity Pro service. This program represents a substantial investment in the educational community, potentially saving students hundreds of dollars on a tool designed to revolutionize how they interact with information.

The core of this offering allows eligible students to gain invaluable access to Perplexity Pro, a service typically priced at $20 per month, translating to a potential saving of nearly $480 over two years. To qualify, students must verify their academic status through SheerID, a trusted third-party verification service. The process is designed to be straightforward, requiring basic personal information and, in some cases, documentation such as a class schedule, tuition receipt, transcript, or a dated student ID card. SheerID emphasizes privacy, ensuring that student data is protected and never sold.

While an initial period of Perplexity Pro access may be granted upon successful verification, students can primarily unlock the full two years through a robust referral program. For every peer a student refers who successfully creates a new Perplexity account and verifies their student status via SheerID, both the referrer and the new user receive an additional month of Perplexity Pro, stacking up to a maximum of 24 months.

Perplexity Pro itself is a powerful suite of tools tailored for academic rigor. Unlike traditional search engines that simply provide lists of links, Perplexity Pro delivers comprehensive, conversational answers directly, accompanied by source citations to ensure accuracy and enable deeper exploration. Key features include access to advanced AI models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.5, the ability to upload various document types (PDFs, Word files) for instant summaries or question-and-answer sessions, and the creation of custom AI assistants for specific courses or research topics. It also offers “Deep Research” reports and “Perplexity Tasks” for automated workflows, significantly simplifying complex research and accelerating academic productivity. Students leveraging such AI-assisted learning tools have reportedly seen improvements in study efficiency by up to 40% and a reduction in research time by nearly 60%.

This initiative by Perplexity aligns with a broader trend of artificial intelligence becoming an increasingly integral part of the educational landscape. AI tools are transforming learning experiences by enabling personalized content creation, providing intelligent tutoring systems, and streamlining research processes for both students and educators. Perplexity has rapidly grown in this evolving market, with a valuation reaching $18 billion as of March 2025 and processing over 780 million monthly search queries by May 2025. It holds a notable 11.83% market share among AI chatbots and 6.2% in the broader AI search market, positioning it as a significant competitor alongside giants like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.

However, Perplexity’s rapid ascent has not been without its challenges. The company recently faced accusations from Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure provider, of systematically ignoring website “robots.txt” files and employing tactics to evade detection while scraping content. Perplexity has disputed these claims, asserting that much of the activity Cloudflare observed was user-driven fetching rather than automated crawling, a distinction central to ongoing debates about ethical data acquisition in the AI era. This controversy underscores the critical discussions about data ethics and intellectual property that are shaping the future of AI development.

Despite these industry debates, Perplexity’s commitment to making its powerful AI tools accessible to students globally marks a significant step towards democratizing advanced research capabilities. By empowering the next generation of learners with sophisticated AI, Perplexity is not only expanding its user base but also fostering a new era of academic exploration.