Perplexity’s Comet is impressive, but can it replace Google Chrome anytime soon?

AI startup Perplexity has announced that its AI browser, Comet, will now be available for free. The browser was initially available on limited access via a waitlist since its July launch, exclusively to its Max and Pro subscribers.

Comet is fast and intuitive, but is it all sunshine?

Fortune India used Comet for over a month, and it’s easy to see why the browser may stir some worries at the Chrome office. Comet’s owners had even bid to take over Google’s prized browser. Currently, Chrome commands over 70% of the desktop and mobile browser market, with Safari trailing at about 13%, followed by Edge and Firefox.

To begin with, setting up Comet is very simple, and one can even import bookmarks from previous browsers. The only drawback is that passwords can’t be imported, which makes logging back into all your accounts a bit inconvenient.

Where Comet truly stands out is its UI/UX; it feels fresh and far more engaging than Chrome. From its visuals to the finer design choices, Comet creates an experience that feels almost narrative in nature, as if the browser is telling its own story through its interface.

A Perplexity spokesperson told Fortune India, “Comet works like a second brain for users. A brain that does not substitute your thinking processor; instead, simply amplifies the comprehension capabilities.”

Comet is currently only for desktop users. A major problem that users may face would be its storage. It takes up a huge space compared to Google Chrome, which is just a few MBs. This is because for a browser to become an assistant first, it needs to create its own space to do multiple activities on the system. Comet’s .exe file itself was 14,251 KB, almost three times Chrome’s counterpart, which was just 3,264 KB.

The browser opens with the Perplexity assistant homepage and a query box where you can ask it to do anything. On the left, the Spaces and Discover sections offer a more energetic combination of both a browser and a search engine. However, the kind of browsing discovery and fun Google once enabled still feels far from fully realised on Comet.

“Winner-take-all dynamics have shaped the digital economy, but no dominance is permanent. Search is shifting from sifting links to expecting direct, AI-driven answers. Perplexity’s Comet browser is built for this transition, with an integrated assistant that goes beyond responses to handle tasks like scheduling, emailing, and research summarisation,” Prabhu Ram, VP–Industry Research Group (IRG), CyberMedia Research (CMR), tells Fortune India.

Another interesting feature that makes one feel that Comet is genuinely the right heir of Google Chrome is the fact that, unlike Chrome, Comet comes with the possibility of generating extensive revenue. For years, Chrome hasn’t generated ad revenue for Alphabet; it has mainly served to expand the dominance and reach of its search engine. However, with later subscription and Comet Plus, there is a possibility of revenue generation for Aravind Srinivas’ Perplexity.

The likelihood of the success of the latter (Comet Plus) is slightly difficult to gauge; however, unlike Chrome, Comet leaves that possibility on. Again, there continues to be the problem of whether this will facilitate mass adoption, as today’s world appears to increasingly reduce the capabilities of monetising mass adoption that easily.

During the conversation with the company spokesperson, the questions around privacy were dealt with through the answer of on-device capabilities. While this appears to be the right answer, this does add to the delay and lag seen in the answering of queries.

Comet lags in satiating individual needs. As in, once you get a genie, you would not restrict yourself to three wishes, right? You would want it to be faster, to take less time in processing requests, and to skip thinking/reasoning steps at times. That is exactly what may actually work to its disadvantage as well. Plus, while the mobile app is expected soon, a larger problem would be tackling the need for users to even require a web browser eventually. Web browsers were once the entry point to the internet; however, with the mass adoption of generative AI assistants, browsers may become redundant. As a result, while Comet is a good meeting point between the browser and GenAI, users like me want GenAI to help not just with the internet but also to plug it into ‘my’ personal world. There were several times when, while working on a Google Docs file, there came a need to attach a document from my desktop to the assistant so that the doc could be filled automatically.

Can Comet substitute Google Chrome?

This appears to be a difficult question to predict a definitive answer to. An easy question to answer would be if Comet can take away the market share of other browsers. To which the answer would be an easy “Yes”. If Apple can strike a deal with Perplexity, that will be a huge milestone for Perplexity and lead to its possible takeover of Safari.

“Chrome still commands the market through device reach and extensions, but its model remains tied to link-driven search. Comet bets on a new paradigm: an AI-native browser that reimagines the web as an intelligent workspace for professionals and power users—challenging Google’s hold on both browsers and search,” Ram says.

“We believe that Comet is at the right place at the right time, especially when there is a lot of headache in the traditional browsing environment. Comet actually stands a chance to gain [significant market] share, especially when you are taking share from someone as big as Chrome, which has almost two-thirds of the overall browsing market share. Some share gain is inevitable,” says Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint Research.

Yet, expecting Google to give up is far from realistic. Gemini continues to gain traction, and for now, Google may be focussing on pushing Gemini to compete with contenders like Comet rather than solely improving Chrome.

“But at the same time, we also believe that Google will not let it go very easily because they have a very strong Gemini momentum with them and a very tight integration of the Google ecosystem for Chrome. And that is what differentiates right now for normal users and a lot of emerging market users. The differentiation is not very real as of now because they're still tied to regular browsing. But yes, things will change,” Comet adds.

For now, Comet appears to be a good preview of what future internet browsing would look like; however, this would definitely require a better model to be achieved by Perplexity by striking a probable deal with Samsung and other mobile makers to enable Comet’s wider usage.

“Comet, as of now, is more futuristic, and now with the free approach, it is likely to gain more users. But for some time, we believe there will be an overlap of users between Chrome versus Comet. And then the real differentiation will lie in which company is executing its AI integration more seamlessly. Comet has a head start over there, but then we believe that Google will not be very far behind as well,” Pathak adds.

“As of now, we believe that even the browser habits take some time to change for a lot of users. In this case, things are changing more rapidly, but still we'll say that it will take some time for a larger share of users to go to the AI browsing space and that will give Google a good time to navigate the changing market trends,” he says.

“Yes, it will be a very interesting battle to watch out for, especially when the entire search behaviour is changing and AI native habits are forming. It's a big transition that is happening and that will definitely have an impact on the browser world,” he says.