In Perplexity's own test of the medium effort level of its Agent API, the score on the public research benchmarks BrowseComp plus DSQA rose from 55% to 77% while cost fell nearly 90%.

Concept illustration: on a long shelf stand a left and a right white panel, each with a clear cylinder labeled SCORE and a mustard column topped by a coin labeled COST; the left cylinder is partly filled with dark grey, the right one is filled higher with brick red, and the mustard column is tall on the left and short and squat on the right. Between the panels a grey arrow points right above a laptop whose screen shows a speech bubble, set on a block lettered AGENT API MEDIUM, while at the upper right a sign is lettered PERPLEXITY beside a green star-shaped mark, and a small beige holder sits at the shelf's right end. Printed on the image: 55%→77% medium effort benchmark score, Perplexity's test.

Agent scores and costs swing widely with the step limit, and this is Perplexity's own evaluation with no third-party rerun. The same post raises one model's step limit from 1 to 15, and the score on BrowseComp plus DSQA goes from 41% to 80%. Cost per query rises to about 9 times the original, while the score rises to about 2 times (Perplexity, 2026-11-05). How we checked →

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This item ran in the brief of Nov 6, 2026, alongside 17 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

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SecondSource (2026). "In Perplexity's own test of the medium effort level of its Agent API, the score on the public research benchmarks BrowseComp plus DSQA rose from 55% to 77% while cost fell nearly 90%.." https://secondsource.io/en/product/2026-11-06-1/. Accessed access date.