Are you worried that AI is reducing the traffic on your site? Is your revenue down due to the growth of AI technologies? Good news for publishers. One of the well-known AI startups, Perplexity (backed by Jeff Bezos), will now share revenue with publishers. Not 20, not 30, but 80% of the revenue will go to publishers. On July 30, 2024, the company announced the initial launch of its Publishers’ Program, featuring partners like TIME, Fortune, and Der Spiegel. On August 25, 2025, the company finally linked revenue sharing to the publishers. So, why does this matter to you? If you are a blogger or publisher (or part of it), this is going to impact your revenue in a good way. Learn more details.
Big Announcement by Perplexity
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, officially announced the big update.
He wrote on his LinkedIn, “Traffic is an old way to measure value. Perplexity will be launching a new subscription, Comet Plus, which we believe is a much better compensation model that rewards publishers for quality content and provides users with the best information possible…”
What Is Comet Plus?
Perplexity’s AI-powered browser and search tool is Comet. It doesn’t simply give links like Google does. It browses the web, summarizes answers, and performs tasks for users as well. Now, the Comet Plus is a paid subscription plan ($5 per month), and users get their hands on curated content from selected publishers (like news outlets). Currently, Comet Plus is only available in the US for its Pro users, but it will soon be open to others as well.
The New Revenue-Sharing Model
Perplexity will now pay publishers, such as news sites and blogs, to earn money whenever their content is used inside Comet. Now, according to the company, the publishers will be paid in three ways:
- When the publishers’ website links show up in Comet’s AI-generated search results.
- When Comet users click and visit the publisher’s site through Comet.
- When Comet’s AI uses the publishers’ content to perform a specific task for its users.
The Money Pool ($42.5 Million Fund)
- For the same, Perplexity dedicated a $42.5 million fund.
- Whatever money comes from the Comet Plus subscription revenue will be split 80-20. The publishers will get the majority cut of 80%.
- This model is popularly compared to Apple News+, where Apple splits the subscription revenue with publishers.
Why This Matters to Publishers
According to ‘infactory’, publishers are losing about 25% of their traffic due to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others. That’s a significant amount, meaning less traffic results in less ad revenue. To combat this problem, Perplexity introduced a publisher’s program to support the creators.
Aravind Srinivas stated, “AI is making the internet better, but publishers should still get paid.”
Other AI giants such as Google, Meta, and OpenAI are negotiating deals with publishers like Reuters, Axel Springer, and Vox Media. However, this is new, as they are only licensing content for AI training.
Final Thoughts…
The move has come to light not only to pay the publishers but also to fight other legal battles. Forbes and Condé Nast are accusing Perplexity of using their work in AI summaries without permission. But according to Perplexity, this initiative “will set the law straight early so everyone can benefit.”
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