Perplexity has opened its AI-powered Comet browser to everyone at no cost. Comet first appeared in July for premium users, then expanded on a waitlist. Now it is a free download with the same core pitch, an assistant that can read, reason and take actions while you browse. This move puts Comet in front of a far larger audience than before, which means more potential referral clicks for publishers and brands that get cited in its answers.
Where the money comes from
Perplexity has paired the free release with a publisher payment model called Comet Plus. The plan adds a five-dollar subscription that funds a shared payout pool, with eighty percent of revenue distributed to participating publishers and twenty percent kept by Perplexity. Earlier briefings set the pool at forty-two and a half million US dollars to get things moving.
Payouts aren’t random. They are tied to three measurable signals, direct traffic sent from Comet to publisher sites, citations inside AI answers, and content used to complete AI-powered tasks. If your pages appear as sources, get clicked, and help the assistant finish a job, you score more of the pool.
Why AI citations matter
AI browsing changes discovery. Instead of a page of blue links, Comet drafts an answer and shows its sources. When your article is named and linked in that panel, you gain both visibility and eligibility for revenue share. With Comet now free, the volume of queries that can produce those mentions will rise, so the brands that prepare first will bank the early advantage.
Practical steps to earn citations
Publish source-worthy content. Comet prefers pages that answer questions clearly and cite evidence. Build articles that state the claim, show the data, and link the primary sources. Original figures, tables and short quotable facts travel well in AI summaries. Aim for crisp H2s that map to search intents such as cost, steps, risks and definitions.
Add the right structure. Use FAQPage, HowTo, Article, Product or Dataset schema where it fits. Mark up author names, dates, steps, ingredients or properties so an AI agent can lift the detail without misreading it. Keep headings literal rather than clever, since models look for clean matches between questions and section titles.
Surface trustworthy signals. Prominent bylines, expertise, a short bio and a last-updated note help models and users judge reliability. Link to your reference list at the end of each piece. If you run comparisons or reviews, show your testing method in a short appendix so citations feel safe to reuse.
Fix technical findability. Keep sitemaps current. Ensure fast mobile performance and remove intrusive interstitials that block text extraction. If you want Comet to read your pages, permit Perplexity’s agents in robots and any WAF rules, at least for public content. Perplexity documents identifiers such as PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User for allow-listing in Cloudflare.
Decide your crawler policy with eyes open. Some providers have reported stealth crawling that ignores robots settings. If your model is subscription or ad-funded and you cannot accept republishing risk, you may choose to block Perplexity agents and monitor access. If you rely on top-of-funnel reach, allowing crawl may be the better trade. Review this setting quarterly.
Measurement and reporting
You can already see part of this traffic in analytics. GA4 records referral sources when AI tools pass a referrer header, and Perplexity does. Add a view that filters for referrals and scan for perplexity.ai in Session source or Session source or medium.
For leadership updates, build a lightweight Looker Studio widget or GA4 Exploration that lists AI sources by session and conversions. If your CRM accepts UTM parameters, create a short link standard for outreach posts to Comet’s audience and add utm_source=perplexity when you control the link distribution, for example in newsletters or partner placements. For a broader view of “answer ownership”, pair analytics with an AI-visibility tracker that records which domains get cited for the prompts you care about.
Editorial patterns that win citations
Short, self-contained explainers on a single topic travel better than sprawling guides. Use a lead that defines the term in one sentence, then a section that lists three to five key points, each with a reference. Where a concept is procedural, publish a compact step list with inputs and outcomes. Where a concept is comparative, publish a neat table that states criteria, metric and result. Keep figures in plain HTML where possible so agents can parse them.
Quick alignment table
| Signal Comet counts | What to publish or fix |
| Direct traffic referrals | Clear source sections near the top, strong link titles, fast pages that open cleanly |
| Citations in answers | FAQ blocks that map to common questions, definitional H2s, precise facts with sources |
| Content used for tasks | Checklists, step-by-step how-tos, calculators or datasets with obvious inputs and outputs |
Team workflow for brands and publishers
Set a weekly slot to review emerging questions from Search Console, site search and support tickets. Turn the top five into articles with the structure above, publish, then submit updated sitemaps. Run a monthly audit of AI referrals and citations, and flag pages that appear in answers but get no clicks. Those pages likely need stronger calls to action, a clearer first paragraph or a more descriptive title tag.
On governance, document your stance on AI crawlers and stick to it. If you allow access, update robots and WAF rules and track bot activity. If you block, confirm enforcement with server logs and be ready to revisit when contract options or better monetisation terms appear.
The takeaway for businesses
Comet going free expands the audience for AI-assisted browsing. Brands that publish clear, cited and well-structured content can earn both visibility and a share of the new revenue model, while retaining control over crawler access. Treat this as a steady editorial habit rather than a one-off sprint. The sites that keep answering real questions, with sources and structure, will see the benefits first.
Ready to earn AI citations from Perplexity’s Comet? Myoho Marketing will audit your content, schema and tracking, then deliver a Generative Engine Optimisation action plan that turns citations into visits and revenue. Book a consultation.
