Perplexity wants $200 a month for a coworker that works around the clock. Anthropic already sells something close to it for a tenth of that price.
The company opened its new Teammates feature to Max subscribers on Nov. 4, 20261. A Teammate takes on one job, such as running a marketing campaign or tracking a company's metrics. It keeps working on its own until the job is done. The only plan that carries it costs $200 a month, or $2,000 for the year4.
Anthropic sells something close for far less. Its Claude Duet agent rides inside the Pro plan, priced at $20 a month11. Both agents promise the same relief: set a goal, then step away from the screen.
What a Teammate Actually Does
A Teammate keeps working between a user's questions. Perplexity gives it its own browser and its own desktop, kept apart from any other one a user runs1. One Teammate can hand work to another: one finds bugs on a website, and a second prepares the fix.
Perplexity's co-founder and chief executive, Aravind Srinivas, announced the shift on X on Nov. 5, 2026. "They are personal agents for work. And change the paradigm from writing prompts in a session to giving high-level goals," he wrote5. A Teammate can also sit inside a Slack channel, where colleagues ask it for updates the way they would ask a coworker1.
Aravind Srinivas@AravSrinivasToday, we're launching Perplexity Teammates.
They are personal agents for work. And change the paradigm from writing prompts in a session to giving high-level goals. Rolling out to Max users on the web today. Native apps (mobile, desktop) coming soon. pic.twitter.com/dmYIuw52Yb
The Price Perplexity Picked
Free and Pro subscribers must upgrade to Max to get a Teammate2. That plan runs $200 a month, or $2,000 billed for the year, close to $167 a month4. Perplexity's own usage math still applies underneath that price.
Max includes 10,000 credits a month, and Perplexity prices the work at 100 credits to the dollar3. A quick fact costs 15 to 70 credits. Building a data dashboard runs 2,400 to 9,800 credits. A full app build costs 15,000 credits or more, 50 percent past the month's entire allowance.
Perplexity promises a grace period first. "For a promotional period, every Max plan will include free usage for Perplexity teammates," the company says2. After that window closes, a Teammate spends from the same 10,000 credits as everything else a subscriber does on Perplexity.
One App Build Can Cost 50 Percent More Than Perplexity's Monthly Cap
Perplexity Computer credits per task, 100 credits to the dollar, against the Max plan's monthly allowance, as of Nov. 5, 2026
Each column is a credit total: the two gray columns are task costs Perplexity publishes, and the blue column is the 10,000 credits a Max plan includes each month.
Sources: Perplexity Help Center [3]; Perplexity Help Center [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Data dashboard | 9,800 |
| Monthly Max cap | 10,000 |
| App build | 15,000 |
Anthropic's Cheaper, Unfinished Answer
Claude Duet does a similar job for less money, with less polish. Anthropic opened a waitlist for it on Oct. 21, 2026, two weeks before Teammates shipped8. "We're opening a research preview of Claude Duet, a new app where Claude works as a proactive agent," the company posted on X.
Duet watches a user's email and calendar, sends a morning brief, and drafts replies for approval10. It runs on Pro, Max or Ultra, the same three plans Anthropic already sells for regular chat. Those plans price out at $20, $100 and $200 a month11. The preview carries its price inside the plan a subscriber already pays for.
Anthropic set expectations low on launch day. "It can still misjudge what's urgent, and we'll keep tuning it based on what early users tell us," the company posted9.
Claude's $20 Plan Costs a Tenth of Perplexity's $200 Plan
Monthly U.S. price of the plan each company sells with its always-on work agent, as of Nov. 5, 2026
Each bar is one plan's monthly price. The magenta bar is Perplexity Max, the only plan that carries a Teammate; the other three are Anthropic's tiers, from Pro up to Ultra.
Sources: Perplexity Help Center [4]; Anthropic [11]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Claude Pro | $20 |
| Claude Max | $100 |
| Claude Ultra | $200 |
| Perplexity Max | $200 |
The catch sits in the word preview. Anthropic's own support page says Duet "checks your accounts at set intervals, so something urgent can arrive between checks"12. Its background checks count against the same five-hour and weekly limits as a normal chat. A waitlist still gates it, and Anthropic keeps the wider launch date open.
The Case for Paying Anyway
Perplexity's bet is that real work is worth real money. Srinivas built Teammates to remember an organization and coordinate with the people in it, past answering one question alone15. This kind of coordination takes more than a chat window offers, and Perplexity prices it that way.
A reviewer at SentiSight tested a Teammate on one task and watched it fail quietly. Two days passed, and roughly $200 in extra credits went to a single broken web page7. Tom Cuylaerts, who reviewed the launch for the European technology site i-SCOOP, argues for discipline over avoidance. "Whoever understands that, and lets the first teammate start small, measured and capped, has a head start on whoever looks at the invoice after a month and pulls the plug," he wrote.
Duet's caution cuts the other way. Anthropic checks a user's accounts on a fixed schedule, which keeps its free ride from draining a subscriber's normal chat limits12. A cheaper agent that waits between checks is a different purchase than one that works around the clock for $200.
What to Do
Price one real task before paying for either agent. Pick a single bounded job, cap its budget in advance, and run it for a week on whichever plan you already hold.
Test Perplexity's promotional window before standard credits apply, and track what one finished job actually costs23. Join Anthropic's waitlist if your team already pays for Claude Pro, Max or Ultra. Duet then rides inside the price you already pay1011.
Move real budget toward either agent only after a measured job shows it earns the difference. This discipline is the same guardrail Cuylaerts recommends for any new always-on hire7.
By the Numbers
- $200: Perplexity Max's monthly price, the only plan that carries a Teammate4.
- $20: Claude Pro's monthly price, the cheapest plan that carries Claude Duet11.
- 10,000: Perplexity credits a Max plan includes for Teammates work each month3.
- 15,000: the credits a full app build can cost on Perplexity, past that month's entire allowance3.
- Two days: how long a SentiSight reviewer's Teammate burned on one failed web page7.
- Oct. 21, 2026: when Anthropic opened Claude Duet's waitlist, two weeks before Teammates shipped8.
What to Watch
Watch whether Perplexity's promotional credits become a lasting discount or end on schedule. The answer will show the real monthly bill fast.
A wider release of Claude Duet, past its waitlist, would change the comparison too. The price gap would turn into a genuine choice between two finished products. Anyone testing either agent should check their own credit meter before the first invoice arrives.
Sources
- Perplexity, "Teammates are agents for complex, ongoing work," Nov. 4, 2026, https://www.perplexity.ai/en-GB/hub/blog/teammates-are-agents-for-complex-ongoing-work
- Perplexity Help Center, "Get started with Perplexity teammates," Nov. 4, 2026, https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/2026102601-perplexity-teammates
- Perplexity Help Center, "How credits work on Perplexity," Nov. 5, 2026, https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/13838041-how-credits-work-on-perplexity
- Perplexity Help Center, "Perplexity Max," Nov. 5, 2026, https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11680686-perplexity-max
- Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas), post on X, Nov. 5, 2026, https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/2118388400730591469
- Shikhar Mehrotra, "Perplexity's new AI coworkers can take over your workload, but they don't come cheap," Digital Trends, Nov. 5, 2026, https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/perplexitys-new-ai-coworkers-can-take-over-your-workload-but-they-dont-come-cheap/
- Tom Cuylaerts, "Perplexity Teammates take over a project for weeks, and here is what that colleague really costs," i-SCOOP, Nov. 6, 2026, https://www.i-scoop.eu/perplexity-teammates/
- Claude (@claudeai), post on X, Oct. 21, 2026, https://x.com/claudeai/status/2112984664256241837
- Claude (@claudeai), post on X, Oct. 21, 2026, https://x.com/claudeai/status/2112984669943968099
- Anthropic, "Claude Duet," product page, Oct. 21, 2026, https://claude.com/product/claude-duet
- Anthropic, "Plans & pricing," Nov. 5, 2026, https://claude.com/pricing
- Anthropic, "Get started with Claude Duet," Support Center, Oct. 21, 2026, https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17631495-get-started-with-claude-duet
