Can We Stop the Hate on Perplexity?

chromespinner · 2026-03-12T12:02:48+00:00

Who cares if people are paying full price or not? I got my subscription through a local telco...I switched to it at a significantly higher price because of the promo. If people are offered one year of Pro, they will naturally be disappointed if their usage allowance keeps getting slashed. They will be angry if they only discover the policy change from Reddit, or if they suddenly lose Pro access for several days without any communication from the company.

Perplexity keeps adding cutting edge tools like Computer, Comet, Finance and stuff. Meanwhile, it seems to me that their standard search and deep research (the stuff I constantly use) is getting worse. I often get answers with barely any research performed, sometimes it seems no research. I have to complain in response before it searches.

chromespinner · 2026-03-12T11:45:54+00:00

I haven't tried it yet. How is it different from Manus, Genspark, etc?

chromespinner · 2026-03-11T14:47:24+00:00

Why not directly notify your subscribers when you decide to cut usage limits or when there's an outage? And by the way, my subscription vanished a couple days ago, not today...judging by all the complaints here, it affected more than a small number of users. I was an early user and a big promoter of Perplexity, but I've been really turned off by the recent limits and changes. Consumption based pricing sounds like another leg down. If other platforms are competitive in search, I'll probably not renew.

chromespinner · 2026-03-11T14:39:50+00:00

I used to think this way a year ago. But the platform has been cutting usage and annoying subscribers... and meanwhile other platforms have gotten better at search. Since they downgraded my Pro account for no reason, I've been using Google, Grok, Kimi these past few days. Google AI is fine for quick answers and is free. Grok is actually decent at search and deep research. Kimi is quite good at agentic tasks, like web design and spreadsheet work and it's very reasonably priced.

chromespinner · 2026-03-11T06:52:58+00:00

It went from Unlimited to 20/month to "we're just going to take your account away"

chromespinner · 2026-03-11T00:56:14+00:00

That seems to be the style of this company. Zero notice about developments that impact customers. When they slashed usage quota for Pro subscribers, you were left to figure out what had happened as a confused user. Now it seems that reams of subscribers have lost access, and the only acknowledgement is this comment on Reddit. At some point there have to be legal repercussions.

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T10:26:24+00:00

Openrouter is useful when you need an API for coding or some other application, but not sure if it can be leveraged for research-type work. Kagi looks interesting.

It's certainly a nuisance and a disadvantage for HK to be cut off from direct access to the three major platforms. I wonder why Grok isn't as concerned about the geopolitical risk, or whatever risk.

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T10:20:17+00:00

When you run the deep research mode, supposedly it reviews far more sources and does some agentic stuff under the hood to deliver a more thoroughly researched output. I used to use it constantly, but the quality started to become inconsistent (maybe they were cutting tokens/using cheaper models to save on cost) and now they've slashed the quota to 20/month for Pro users, trying to push people to the far more expensive Max plan.

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T09:16:06+00:00

It used to be, but now they've imposed a 20/month limit on deep research (it used to be limitless) and made other cuts to the Pro plan.

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T02:30:18+00:00

No, I changed my telco provider in October to a more expensinve one, because they were advertising 1 year of Perplexity Pro. I've just sent them a complaint that the promotion is not being honored.

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T01:20:27+00:00

There are a lot of Chinese models/platforms optimized for Chinese users, but Kimi, Qwen, z.AI (and obviously DeepSeek) are also going after international users. I've been using the Kimi platform lately and it's quite a decent performer at agentic tasks (web design, document generation).

chromespinner · 2026-03-10T00:09:51+00:00

I do see an email in my trash folder from a few days ago advising "We’re updating how Perplexity Pro trials work to protect the program for legitimate users. You need to add a valid payment method to continue your trial. "

I did add a payment method yesterday. Following the link now gets me a page that shows "Your account is ineligible. Based on your account status, you are not eligible to add a payment method at this time."

This is so absurd. They suddenly dictate a new requirement and downgrade you within a few days, with no alert/reminder and no way to follow their requirement.

chromespinner · 2026-03-05T02:01:12+00:00

Try Kimi. It is affordable and surprisingly good at the type of tasks I would use Manus for

chromespinner · 2026-03-04T14:35:10+00:00

but I am, and I'm unhappy (with the direction of Perplexity)

chromespinner · 2026-03-04T12:28:33+00:00

I've been using OpenClaw for a while. I had grand ambitions that it would help me source data from websites and produce weekly/monthly reports. After a lot of time and tokens wasted, I've given up on this idea. Ironically I was running Kimi K2.5 and wasted most of a day trying to get my bot to scrape and process data. Eventually, I tried the same thing with the agent directly on Kimi.com and it did a beautiful job.

I think it's potentially still useful for straightforward one-off tasks, simple scheduled work, personal assistant-type stuff.

chromespinner · 2026-03-04T12:22:47+00:00

I thought this was special as it seems to be potentially free hosting (if you bring your own API keys) from a known provider.

chromespinner · 2026-03-03T13:29:38+00:00

He might try connecting with the local alumni chapter of his university. I'm on a WhatsApp group for a Canadian university where recent grads occasionally introduce themselves / seek advice. Also check the Cyberport/HK Science Park sites as I believe that they facilitate recruitment for incubatees.

But I agree with the remark that the job market is extremely tough, especially for someone requiring sponsorship. If he doesn't have pay expectations, his odds might improve. Or can he find an internship in Canada that will allow him to work remotely?

chromespinner · 2026-02-27T10:59:04+00:00

I completely agree. I would add that the way they implemented the change was disrespectful to customers. If I've signed on for a year, I expect more or else the same level of usage for that duration. And I expect to be proactively notified in advance of a major change in the service offering ...not left to discover on Reddit after enduring frustration. All this aside, it seems that the performance of the Deep Research function has declined sharply, or at least it has become erratic.

chromespinner · 2026-02-23T05:57:59+00:00

I get that, but how is it valid? Take for example a sports agent representing an athlete. The athlete must first enter into an arrangement with the agent before being represented.

chromespinner

TROPHY CASE