Perplexity Cut Free-Tier Research Queries From 5 a Day to 1 a Month. The Original Report Didn't Catch It.
Perplexity cut free-tier Research queries from 5 a day to 1 a month. OneHuman's own July 19 report missed the comparison, corrected here.
Published: August 5, 2026 Impact: High. Affects every Perplexity free-tier user, plus anyone deciding whether to upgrade.
Correction, August 5, 2026: This article originally stated there was no prior OneHuman figure for Perplexity's free-tier Research allowance. That was wrong. BNA #15 (July 18-19, 2026) found the same feature, then still commonly called "Deep Research" (officially renamed to "Research" by Perplexity in a May 2025 blog post), capped at 5 per day. Perplexity's help center, dated July 22, 2026, now shows 1 per month for the same allowance. That is a cut of more than 99% in practical terms (5/day is roughly 150+/month), not a fresh data point with nothing to compare against. Corrected below.
What Perplexity's Help Center Says Today
Perplexity's help center article, "Which Perplexity Subscription Plan is right for you?", carries a July 22, 2026 date. It states the free-tier allowance in two numbers: 3 Pro Searches per day, and 1 Research query per month.
Neither number is a new discovery this week, and the Research figure is not a fresh data point either: it is a comparison. The 3-per-day Pro Search cap reconfirms what OneHuman reported on July 19. The 1-per-month Research figure, measured against the 5-per-day figure OneHuman reported for the same feature four days earlier, is a cut of more than 99% in practical terms.
I checked the page directly on August 5, 2026, the day this article publishes. Both figures matched Perplexity's own text, not a third-party summary of it.
The July 19 Baseline
OneHuman first reported both free-tier caps in BNA #15, "Perplexity Sells Citations. Ask It a Broad Question and You Get SEO Blogs" (July 19, 2026), sourced from Perplexity's own rate-limit documentation on July 18: 3 Pro Searches per day, and 5 Deep Research per day. Seventeen days later, the Pro Search cap holds unchanged. The Deep Research figure is the one that moved.
What Actually Changed: 5 a Day to 1 a Month
Perplexity's help center splits free-tier access into two products: Pro Search, for quick cited answers, capped at 3 a day, and Research, for longer multi-step queries, capped at 1 a month. A free user who needs a second Research query inside the same 30-day window waits for the reset or upgrades.
BNA #15 (July 18-19, 2026) found this same feature, capped at 5 per day under the name "Deep Research," confirmed against Perplexity's own rate-limit documentation. Perplexity officially renamed "Deep Research" to "Research" in a May 2025 blog post; the name persisted in casual use and in Perplexity's own documentation well after the rename, which is why BNA #15's July 18 test and Perplexity's July 22 help-center page both describe the same allowance under names four days and one rename apart. A daily cap of 5 (up to roughly 150 over a 30-day month) falling to a flat 1 per month is the real finding this piece under-reported at first publication.
A Familiar Shape
Perplexity's allowances have narrowed before. Between November 2025 and February 2026, Perplexity cut paid-tier weekly Pro Searches from 600 to 200, cut file uploads from unlimited to 50 a week, and consolidated six subscription tiers down to four, reporting corroborated by Android Authority, PiunikaWeb, and MakeUseOf. Separately, Samsung's 12-month free-Pro promotion for Galaxy devices expired December 24, 2025, and was not renewed. Neither event is new this week. Both show a vendor that revisits allowances on a recurring cycle.
What to Do Next
Track both clocks. Pro Search resets daily. Research resets monthly. Know which one you are close to before a mid-task wall.
Compare against Pro before upgrading blind. OneHuman's July 19 report priced Pro at $17/month billed annually. Confirm current Pro-tier allowances directly with Perplexity before assuming the free-tier math justifies the jump.
Recheck the help center periodically. These are the numbers Perplexity states today. History shows this vendor revisits tier limits more than once a year.
Sources
- Perplexity help center: "Which Perplexity Subscription Plan is right for you?" (dated July 22, 2026)
- OneHuman BNA #15 — "Perplexity Sells Citations. Ask It a Broad Question and You Get SEO Blogs." (July 19, 2026)
- Perplexity, "Introducing Perplexity Labs" (May 29, 2025) — official rename of "Deep Research" to "Research"
- Android Authority, PiunikaWeb, MakeUseOf: Perplexity paid-tier allowance reporting, November 2025-February 2026 (background pattern only)
Verified: August 5, 2026
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Share This Article
"Perplexity's free-tier Research allowance dropped from 5 a day to 1 a month. Same feature, renamed from Deep Research in 2025. OneHuman's own July 19 report had the 5/day figure and missed the comparison."
"OneHuman reported the 3-per-day Pro Search cap on July 19. Seventeen days later, Perplexity's help center confirms the same number. This is reconfirmation, not a new discovery."
"Perplexity separates two free-tier products on different clocks: Pro Search resets daily, capped at 3. Research resets monthly, capped at 1, down from 5 a day under its old name, Deep Research."
"Perplexity trimmed paid-tier weekly searches from 600 to 200 between November 2025 and February 2026. Free-tier caps deserve the same scrutiny paid-tier cuts already got."