Install guide and config at curatedmcp.com

Perplexity MCP: Synthesized web answers with citations for your AI agent

Your Claude instance or Cursor editor can now search the web like a researcher, not a search engine. Perplexity MCP brings citation-backed, synthesized answers directly into your AI workflows — no more parsing raw search results or hallucinating facts.

What It Does

Perplexity MCP connects your AI agent to Perplexity's search engine, which does something different than traditional search APIs: it reads multiple sources and synthesizes them into coherent answers with direct source citations. Instead of getting 10 blue links, you get a researched response grounded in real-time web data.

The server unlocks several search modes:

• Real-time web search — current answers across the internet
• Academic mode — filtered to research papers and scholarly sources
• Pro search — multi-step reasoning for complex questions
• News search — recent articles with recency filtering
• Image search — visual results when you need them

For AI agents, this solves a real problem: hallucination. When Claude needs current information (stock prices, recent events, new library releases), Perplexity grounds it in live sources. When you're building research tools or knowledge aggregators, citations mean your users can verify the answers.

The API also supports follow-up questions and related topic expansion, so your agent can drill deeper without restarting searches.

How to Install

npx -y @perplexity/mcp

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity-mcp": {
      "command": "npx -y @perplexity/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Grab a free API key at Perplexity's developer docs. Free tier includes 5 requests/day; Pro plans ($20/month) unlock unlimited searches.

Real-World Use Cases

• Competitive research in Cursor — Ask Claude to research competitor pricing, features, and recent funding in a single synthesized report with citations you can share with your team.
• Fact-checking in real-time — Building a content review tool? Have Claude verify claims in your draft articles against live web sources before publishing.
• Academic paper hunting — Switch to academic mode and have Claude find and summarize recent research papers on a topic, with direct links to sources.

Full install guides for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and more at CuratedMCP.