By Sam Hill
Publication Date: 2026-03-18 20:18:00
Perplexity released its Comet AI browser as a standalone app for iPhone, expanding the fast-growing AI browser category for Apple’s mobile ecosystem.
The launch follows an Android rollout late last year and marks a major shift in pricing: Comet, which debuted on desktop in 2025 with a $200-per-month subscription, is now free on mobile. AI browsers have been gaining popularity, and plenty of users will be excited for a good replacement for the iOS-native Safari browser.
Why AI browsers like Comet are becoming popular
AI assistants streamline research and routine tasks
Comet blends a traditional browser with an AI assistant that can summarize pages, answer questions, and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf. That “agentic” approach — where the AI doesn’t just respond but actively navigates, clicks, and completes actions — has become a defining feature in a crowded field of AI-enhanced browsers.
In long-term testing, Comet has proven compelling enough to replace traditional browsers for many day-to-day tasks, largely because of how tightly its AI is integrated. Instead of acting as a sidebar chatbot, the assistant can directly interact with web pages — filling out forms, managing tabs, summarizing videos, and even handling shopping workflows or email triage.
That deep integration is also what differentiates it from rivals like Chrome or Edge, where AI features tend to feel…
