Perplexity sued for cutting Deep Research from 500 queries a day to 20 a month

On November 12 a federal class action landed on PerplexityPVT$30.00B — Perplexity, private, latest valuation $30.00B AI, the AI search and answer startup, in San Francisco, on behalf of subscribers who say they paid for 500 Deep Research queries a day and got about 20 a month ¹. Plaintiff Ntsikelelo Bonga, a Perplexity Pro subscriber, says the product stopped working partway through a period he had already paid for ¹.

The suit, Bonga v. Perplexity AI, number 3:26-cv-12673↗ in the Northern District of California, says Perplexity built its Pro base on the 500-a-day pitch, then cut Deep Research, a Pro research feature, to roughly 20 a month in February 2026 without telling subscribers ¹.

The cap is where the margin lives

The complaint attacks disclosure; the economics explain why. Perplexity rents its intelligence: Computer, its agent product launched the month of the cut, routes each task to one of 19 different models it does not own ². Annualized revenue rose from under $250 million in January to more than $750 million by August, the technology news outlet The Information reported ².

A flat $20 Pro plan, or $200 for Max with its always-on Teammates agents↗, covers rented compute only if the expensive runs are rationed ¹³. Bonga alleges Perplexity meters browser-agent tasks, advanced models and Computer behind weekly limits and credit balances it refuses to disclose, with no refunds after 24 hours on monthly plans and 72 on annual ¹.

One week, two fronts: a price cut and a lost law firm

On November 10 Perplexity put Google's new Gemini 4 Carbon into Computer; Google▼−1.54% — Google, down 1.54 percent today set the price at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, an introductory rate that doubles on November 30↗ ². Every lab price cut widens the spread a router keeps, so long as the meter stays invisible.

The same week, Perplexity dropped Proskauer Rose from Reddit's data-scraping suit↗ after Reddit▼−2.11% — Reddit, down 2.11 percent today moved on October 9 to disqualify the firm over its past work for Reddit; Proskauer denies any conflict ⁴⁵. Perplexity now answers Reddit's copyright claims in New York and its own subscribers' consumer-fraud claims in California at once ¹⁵. The Inference reported in September that Amazon▼−1.16% — Amazon, down 1.16 percent today told a federal appeals court Perplexity's app contradicted what its lawyers had said.

The round meets the courtroom

A complaint is a claim, not a finding, and Perplexity denies Reddit's allegations ⁵. Rationing is not unique to it: SpaceX▼−2.57% — SpaceX, down 2.57 percent today tightened Grok Bots usage limits after heavy use ³. Nvidia▼−3.21% — Nvidia, down 3.21 percent today is reported in talks to join a round valuing Perplexity above $30 billion, roughly 40 times sales, and chief executive Aravind Srinivas has said the company will list in 2028 ²⁶⁷.

Whoever signs that round buys the litigation and the disclosure risk. If the cap schedule is forced open, the runs now rationed become compute bills collected by the model owners, Google, AnthropicPVT$350B — Anthropic, private, latest valuation $350B and OpenAIPVT$1.18T — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $1.18T ².

The public-market read arrives on November 18, when Anthropic, the AI lab, prices 825 million shares at $70 to $78 for its Nasdaq debut↗, with trading set to start the next day ⁸. The markup on other people's models stays invisible only as long as the meter does.