Perplexity launches AI shopping assistant for US users with PayPal

Perplexity is transforming its AI assistant into a personal shopper by launching a free conversational shopping experience for all US users. This new feature combines search, product discovery, and checkout into a single thread. The rollout begins on desktop and web, with iOS and Android support expected in the coming weeks, just in time for the holiday rush.

Within a chat, users can describe what they need, refine their search with follow-up prompts, and receive curated product cards that summarize specifications, reviews, and key trade-offs, rather than presenting long grids. The system retains memory of previous queries and taste signals, ensuring that a search for a winter jacket, a later request for boots or a desk lamp, and even a marathon bag purchase remain connected within one persistent context.

The commerce layer is built on Perplexity’s partnership with PayPal. Shoppers can browse eligible merchant catalogs, add items to their cart, and pay without leaving the conversation. Meanwhile, brands remain the merchant of record, maintaining full customer visibility and handling returns and loyalty themselves. This flow compresses search, browse, and cart into a single sequence, aiming to reduce abandoned checkouts by narrowing the gap between decision and payment.

For Perplexity, this product pushes its assistant deeper into agentic commerce, targeting high-intent shopping queries that traditionally flowed through search engines and marketplaces. It relaunches its earlier shopping experiments as a mainstream feature for all US users. For retailers in the PayPal ecosystem, it opens a new in-chat acquisition channel where each conversation starts closer to a purchase than a casual browse.

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