Perplexity launches ‘Perplexity Patents’ for AI-led patent research

Perplexity has introduced Perplexity Patents, an AI-driven patent search tool that the company has described as a “patent research agent” and made available worldwide in a free beta.

Pro and Max subscribers have been granted higher usage allowances and extra model controls during the trial. The feature is accessible by starting a patents‑related query in Perplexity’s interface.

In the launch announcement shared with the company’s community, Perplexity said the tool accepts natural‑language questions, expands queries to related terminology, and returns results with citations drawn from patent documents and other technical sources.

The company also indicated that, where relevant, it has considered non‑patent literature such as academic papers and public code repositories.

How does Perplexity Patents work?

It is a general‑access agent rather than a specialist database UI: users can start a conversation about an invention, technology area or competitor and the agent will respond with grounded references.

While Perplexity did not publish a full technical spec alongside the announcement, it has previously offered an enterprise “Patent Researcher” template within its Spaces product that outlines a workflow to search public patent databases (for example USPTO, WIPO Patentscope, Espacenet, Google Patents and The Lens), summarise key filings, and highlight overlaps and gaps.

Perplexity has spent the past year broadening its research features for teams, having introduced Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces to let organisations query internal files alongside the web and collaborate in customised “Spaces”.

That focus set the stage for a patents‑specific agent aimed at inventors, startups and IP professionals who want quick scoping before deeper legal analysis.