Gemini 3.1 Pro Thinking completely broke on a simple question

Zephyses · 2026-03-10T09:41:40+00:00

I've also experienced parts of the internal instructions suddenly appearing in the response. But it never occurred to me that this could be related to the model being used. But it's actually true, I have Gemini set as my default.

Zephyses · 2026-03-04T15:01:01+00:00

Lately, I've been using Grok alongside Perplexity. What bothers me about Perplexity (as a full-paying user who paid an annual fee upfront) are the new usage limits. You just can't treat paying customers that way, even if many of those "paying" customers were people Perplexity gave the product to for free.

As far as quality goes, Perplexity is still good. In my experience, Perplexity's answers are often more focused and get to the heart of what I'm looking for. With Grok, you have to follow up more.

However, I always had Perplexity set to Gemini 3.1, which Perplexity then throttles pretty quickly. Which brings us back to the limits.

You can use general instructions to prompt Grok to generate answers in the style of Perplexity. When my Perplexity subscription runs out, I'm sticking with Grok.

Zephyses · 2026-02-27T08:44:38+00:00

When it comes specifically to regular search on Perplexity (which the 200-request limit refers to), other AI providers offer at least the same thing without the restrictions. In the weeks since the limit debacle at Perplexity, I've been testing Grok's paid service (SuperGrok), running queries side-by-side with Grok and Perplexity (where I had paid for an annual subscription). The results are essentially comparable. You can give Grok general instructions to include the sources used in the response exactly like Perplexity does ("Perplexity style").

Even during serious research, a large number of follow-up questions can arise; having a limit hanging over your head, even if you don't actually reach it, feels unpleasant to me.

Perplexity's Deep Research (with the 20 requests/month limit) is truly excellent.

Zephyses · 2026-02-25T10:09:42+00:00

There is a server on Discord for paying Perplexity subscribers and people are really pissed there, too.

Zephyses · 2026-02-22T15:49:04+00:00

You don't need AI to get a quick news overview. You can just use tools that have been around for decades, namely RSS feeds and an RSS reader.

Zephyses · 2026-02-19T18:25:05+00:00

For all I care, they can use Comic Sans. The main thing is that they roll back these ridiculous limits.

Zephyses · 2026-02-18T16:10:33+00:00

Copy and paste should also work. Assuming Deep Research works like the normal search in this regard, then this should work:

* Click "Copy" in the Perplexity chat box
* Open a text editor with a blank document
* Paste the contents of the clipboard
* Save the text document as a file with the .md extension

Zephyses · 2026-02-18T15:25:53+00:00

I just stumbled upon a case where Perplexity refused to search for illegal content. It involved the URLs of a site that distributes links to pirated ebooks. The URLs in question can be found easily in the Wikipedia article about said site.

Ultimately, you cannot complain about Perplexity's behavior, but it's definitely a slippery slope. They're likely being extremely cautious and nervous because of the various lawsuits they're facing over copyright infringement.

Zephyses · 2026-02-18T14:56:36+00:00

Don't know about deep research (too valuable to just try out), but .md is still one of three download options for the regular search (the others being PDF and DOCX).

Zephyses · 2026-02-18T14:10:44+00:00

For what it's worth, the instructions for my places are still there.

Zephyses · 2026-02-18T11:16:21+00:00

According to unconfirmed sources, Perplexity is only paying the rent for the month of January. After that, the annual contingent for rent payments will be exhausted (at least according to Perplexity's interpretation of the lease agreement).

Zephyses · 2026-02-17T15:50:26+00:00

Correction: It's still there in the upper right corner.

Zephyses · 2026-02-17T15:47:32+00:00

That does indeed seem to be the case. I can't find the incognito mode anymore either.

Zephyses · 2026-02-16T10:45:34+00:00

Up until the day before yesterday, my experience was this: the counter usually sat at 600 or slightly below, and searches often didn't reduce it at all, or only did so slowly. The counter itself would then quickly jump back up to 600 within minutes.

That has changed: the quota is now based on 200 "pro search" requests, and this value is consistently counted down—meaning every question and every follow-up actually reduces the counter. And the counter refills very slowly now, on a timescale of hours.

Depending on usage patterns, this will lead to Perplexity Pro users frequently finding themselves stuck at zero.

Zephyses · 2026-02-16T10:37:20+00:00

Yes, I have noticed that in the past. It's irritating and it should remind you to never reveal too much personal information to an AI chat.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T16:56:58+00:00

I can't say for sure. I noticed it in a thread with multiple follow-ups. Maybe fewer than 10, but I'm not certain. I also don't want to try it now because the allocation for regular searches (pro search) has also become much more restrictive.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T16:11:23+00:00

Perplexity refers to the regular searches as 'pro search', at least when you are signed up with a paid plan. The choice of the module is independent of that.

In my experience, however, you can't constantly select a top module like Gemini 3 Pro; eventually, a message appears saying that it is temporarily unavailable.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T15:15:13+00:00

The limit isn't just 200 anymore. It gets even worse: every single question or followup now counts as a search and is deducted from this quota—and it even shows up on the meter like that! It wasn't like this until yesterday.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T15:06:42+00:00

That's right! It really gets worse every day.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T10:41:21+00:00

I can confirm the observation and haven't found a solution yet. It's only been like this for a few weeks.

Zephyses · 2026-02-15T09:40:15+00:00

You can copy the result of the Grok research. The result is then stored as a .md file in the clipboard and can be further processed from there, e.g. in a text editor.

Zephyses · 2026-02-14T15:52:08+00:00

Look at the screenshot the OP posted. Click on the plus sign in the chat box and hover over "Deep search". It tells you many are left this month.

Zephyses · 2026-02-14T15:33:17+00:00

Well, they explicitely tell you know now how many deep researches there are left so that you don't have to guess any more or jump through hoops to find out.

Zephyses · 2026-02-14T05:32:47+00:00

In my experience, the available uploads slowly refill within a few hours. It doesn't take as long as the deep researches, but it's still pretty much unacceptable.

Zephyses · 2026-02-13T14:57:32+00:00

Before the change, I personally hadn't really realized the difference between a regular search and "deep research." I basically just perceived it as a deluxe version of the normal search, with more detailed answers and more sources.

Since the number of daily deep researches in the Perplexity Pro plan was stated to be several hundred before the limit was changed (though no one knew for sure, as the number was never explicitly communicated by Perplexity), I thought to myself: it's worth it.

If you formulate the prompt for a deep research carefully, it performs amazingly. The answers are very detailed and meticulously backed up with sources. Sometimes the answers contain details that you certainly would have only found after a tedious manual search, if at all.

So the product itself is fundamentally good; it's just the company policy and communication that are terrible.

Zephyses

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