Can Perplexity Replace Google Search? I Made the Switch for a Week to Find Out

Perplexity, the AI search tool looking to chip away at Google’s market share, got a boost earlier this year after Samsung added support for it on Galaxy S26 smartphones. Users can summon it by saying, “Hey Plex”, and the AI can interact with native apps like Calendar, Notes, and Gallery as well as Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant. But how well does it do its job? To find out, I replaced my day-to-day Google searches with Perplexity AI queries for a week.

Perplexity positions itself as a research assistant, allowing you to filter sources (“academic only,” for instance), while a Focus mode lets you narrow results to those drawn from a particular site or category. What stands out to me compared with rival AI chatbots is that Perplexity provides inline, numbered citations for every output. Also, unlike some of its competitors, Perplexity draws on real-time web results rather than relying primarily on training data, and it can leverage multiple models to answer queries.

However, to quote The Wire’s Omar Little, “You come at the king, you best not miss.” So did Perplexity hold up against the undisputed champ? Let’s dive in.

Setting Up My Parameters

To test its functionality, I put Google aside for a week and relied solely on Perplexity AI. As a tech and science writer, I use search a lot to provide context for topics or to deep-dive into topics like scientific principles and manufacturing histories. I’m also writing a science-fiction novel heavily based in…