Perplexity MCP Server

The Perplexity MCP server is the official Model Context Protocol implementation maintained by Perplexity AI. It connects MCP-compatible clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Windsurf) to Perplexity's Search API and Sonar family of models, giving agents real-time web search, conversational Q&A, deep research, and structured reasoning without leaving the chat.

The server exposes four tools: perplexity_search for ranked web results with titles, URLs, and snippets; perplexity_ask for quick conversational answers backed by live web search via sonar-pro; perplexity_research for comprehensive analysis with citations via sonar-deep-research; and perplexity_reason for systematic problem solving via sonar-reasoning-pro. The research and reasoning tools support an optional strip_thinking parameter to drop internal reasoning tags and save context tokens.

It is distributed as the npm package @perplexity-ai/mcp-server and runs via npx. Authentication uses a single PERPLEXITY_API_KEY environment variable obtained from the Perplexity API portal. Optional environment variables control timeout, base URL, log level, and proxy settings for enterprise deployments.

Tools

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm (the server runs via npx)
• A Perplexity API key from the API portal
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Windsurf)

Quick install (Claude CLI)

claude mcp add perplexity --env PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your_key_here" -- npx -y @perplexity-ai/mcp-server

Claude Desktop / Cursor config

Add this to your MCP client configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

For VS Code, use the same block but rename the top-level key from mcpServers to servers.

Optional environment variables

• PERPLEXITY_API_KEY (required): your Perplexity API key
• PERPLEXITY_TIMEOUT_MS: request timeout (default 5 minutes)
• PERPLEXITY_BASE_URL: custom API endpoint (default https://api.perplexity.ai)
• PERPLEXITY_LOG_LEVEL: logging verbosity (default ERROR)
• PERPLEXITY_PROXY: corporate proxy URL if required

• Ground an agent's answers in real-time web data using perplexity_ask instead of relying on stale training data
• Run deep, citation-backed competitive or market research with perplexity_research and import the report into a doc
• Use perplexity_search to fetch fresh URLs and snippets that downstream tools (scrapers, summarizers) can then process
• Tackle multi-step reasoning problems (math, code logic, strategic analysis) with perplexity_reason
• Build research workflows inside Cursor or VS Code that pull current docs, changelogs, and Stack Overflow answers inline

• "Use perplexity_research to write a detailed report on the latest changes in the EU AI Act, with citations."
• "Search the web for the top 5 open-source vector databases released in the last 12 months and summarize their differences."
• "Ask Perplexity what the current Fed funds rate is and what the most recent FOMC statement said."
• "Use perplexity_reason to analyze whether migrating our Postgres workload to Aurora Serverless v2 makes sense given these constraints."
• "Find recent news about OpenAI's enterprise pricing changes and list the source URLs."

• Official, first-party implementation maintained by Perplexity AI
• Covers the full Sonar lineup: quick ask, deep research, reasoning, and raw search in one server
• Simple npx install with a single required env var; one-click setup for Cursor and VS Code
• strip_thinking option lets you control context usage for reasoning models

• Requires a paid Perplexity API key; usage is metered and not free
• No built-in caching or rate-limit handling documented in the README
• Tool surface is limited to search and reasoning; no file, citation export, or Spaces management tools

• Exa MCP server for semantic web search with similar agent-friendly results
• Tavily MCP server focused on real-time search and extraction for AI agents
• Brave Search MCP server for privacy-focused web search