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Perplexity Unveils $42.5M Revenue-Sharing Plan for Publishers—Backed by New Comet Plus Subscription
3 min read Perplexity is now paying publishers when AI uses their content—via a \$5/month plan called Comet Plus that sends 80% of proceeds to media outlets. It’s part truce, part turning point for AI-era news. August 26, 2025 16:33
Perplexity just rolled out a bold new revenue-sharing initiative that will allocate $42.5 million to publishers whose content appears in its AI search results. The centerpiece of this plan is Comet Plus, a $5/month subscription where 80% of the proceeds go directly to media outlets.
How it works:
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Monetizing content exposure: Publishers will earn revenue when their content:
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Drives traffic through the Comet browser,
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Appears in AI search results,
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Or is referenced by Perplexity’s assistant in task completions.
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Full rev share (minus compute): All subscription revenue—after deducting compute costs—goes to publishers. Users on Pro and Max plans will get Comet Plus included automatically.
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Big-name friction: The launch comes amid active copyright litigation from News Corp's Dow Jones and cease-and-desist letters from Forbes and Condé Nast, signaling that legal tensions are heating up fast.
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Media meets machine: CEO Aravind Srinivas described the vision as “Apple News+ for AIs and humans”—bridging human and AI content consumption in one streamlined ecosystem.
Why this matters
This marks one of the first serious revenue-sharing models acknowledging that AI agents—just like humans—consume and route traffic to content. And yet, the economics feel shaky: splitting $5 across dozens (or hundreds) of publishers may amount to pennies per click, especially in an industry already struggling to stay afloat in the AI era.
Still, it’s a start—and a signal that AI-native platforms can’t ignore the creators fueling their intelligence.
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