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POST
/
search
Search the Web
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.perplexity.ai/search \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "query": "<string>"
}
'
{
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "<string>",
      "url": "<string>",
      "snippet": "<string>",
      "date": "<string>",
      "last_updated": "<string>"
    }
  ],
  "id": "<string>",
  "server_time": "<string>"
}

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.perplexity.ai/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Search API vs. Sonar. These are different APIs with different response shapes.
  • Search API — Returns structured JSON results[] with title, url, snippet, date, and last_updated. Call https://api.perplexity.ai/search directly — no router required.
  • Sonar — Chat completions with built-in web search. Returns a prose answer with citations, not a results array.
Both are first-party Perplexity APIs. Neither routes through OpenRouter.

​
Response Shape

The Search API returns a ranked results[] array. Each result includes title, url, snippet, and optional date and last_updated fields: 
{
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Example Article Title",
      "url": "https://example.com/article",
      "snippet": "A short excerpt from the article relevant to the query...",
      "date": "2025-01-23",
      "last_updated": "2025-09-25"
    },
    {
      "title": "Another Relevant Source",
      "url": "https://example.org/source",
      "snippet": "Another excerpt showing the structured result format.",
      "date": "2024-11-15",
      "last_updated": "2025-08-12"
    },
    {
      "title": "Third Result",
      "url": "https://example.net/page",
      "snippet": "A third result demonstrating the ranked array structure.",
      "date": "2024-09-10",
      "last_updated": "2025-07-03"
    }
  ],
  "id": "e38104d5-6bd7-4d82-bc4e-0a21179d1f77"
}

​
Direct Call

curl -X POST 'https://api.perplexity.ai/search' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer $PERPLEXITY_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "query": "latest AI developments",
    "max_results": 3
  }' | jq

Authorizations

​
Authorization
string
header
required

Bearer authentication header of the form Bearer <token>, where <token> is your auth token.

Body

application/json
​
query
required

Search query (required)

​
country
string

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code

Required string length: 2
​
max_results
integer
default:10

Maximum number of results to return

Required range: 1 <= x <= 20
​
snippet_mode
string

Controls how much content is extracted from result pages.

  • low — short passages most relevant to the query.
  • medium — a balanced amount of content per document.
  • high (default) — detailed content relevant to the query.

Omit when using max_tokens or max_tokens_per_page.

​
max_tokens
integer

Maximum total webpage content tokens to return across all search results

Required range: 1 <= x <= 1000000
​
max_tokens_per_page
integer

Maximum webpage content tokens to extract from each result page

Required range: 1 <= x <= 1000000
​
search_language_filter
string[]

ISO 639-1 language codes (2-character max)

Maximum array length: 20
Required string length: 2
​
search_domain_filter
string[]

Limit search results to specific domains (max 20)

Maximum array length: 20
Maximum string length: 253
​
last_updated_after_filter
string

Return results updated after this date (MM/DD/YYYY)

​
last_updated_before_filter
string

Return results updated before this date (MM/DD/YYYY)

​
search_after_date_filter
string

Return results published after this date (MM/DD/YYYY)

​
search_before_date_filter
string

Return results published before this date (MM/DD/YYYY)

​
search_recency_filter
enum<string>

Filter by publication recency (hour/day/week/month/year)

Available options:
hour,
day,
week,
month,
year

Response

Successful Response

​
results
ApiSearchPage · object[]
required
​
id
string
required
​
server_time
string | null