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Perplexity AI

How safe is Perplexity for research & science?

GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data: EU hosting possible, no training on your data for business use, and self-hostable. Caution means a model with a documented issue, such as an investigation by a regulator. How we measure for research & scienceUnknown

The maker of Perplexity publishes little about data protection. Ask about this before you put confidential research & science data into it.

Where does Perplexity stand in research & science?

Shared spot 20 of 30 options for research & science (professional tools and general assistants) on GDPR profile. 4 options, like Perplexity, have an unknown profile. Each tile is an option we track for this field; click for the check.

Strong5
Good6
Limited8
Unknown4
Caution7

Published safeguards

None of these three found in what the provider publishes; what is there, you can read below. Know more? Report it

Enterprise plans and the Sonar API are not trained on customer data (SOC 2 Type II; API with zero data retention). For consumer accounts, data use for model improvement can be switched off in the settings.

How to use Perplexity safely

  • Use the business variant and sign a data processing agreement (DPA).
  • Do not enter unnecessary personal data into prompts; anonymise where possible.
  • Ask the provider explicitly where data is stored and processed.
  • Keep a professional in the loop: never use AI as a source: every reference must be traceable to the original article, as invented or misattributed citations are the most common error.

Stronger or equally strong in research & science

CradleCradle (Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Zürich, Switzerland)ASReview LABUniversiteit Utrecht (the Netherlands)KeeniousKeenious (Norway)ScholarcyEverway Opco Limited / Scholarcy (Antrim, United Kingdom)SciSpacePubGenius Inc. (Milpitas, United States)

Questions

How safe is Perplexity for research & science?
The maker of Perplexity publishes little about data protection. Ask about this before you put confidential research & science data into it. The provider publishes little on this, ask about it before business use.
Does Perplexity train on my data?
Enterprise plans and the Sonar API are not trained on customer data (SOC 2 Type II; API with zero data retention). For consumer accounts, data use for model improvement can be switched off in the settings.
What should I look out for with AI in research & science?
Never use AI as a source: every reference must be traceable to the original article, as fabricated or wrongly attributed citations are the most common error. Unpublished data, research proposals and peer-review manuscripts are confidential or commercially sensitive, so do not enter them into a consumer account without a data processing agreement, and check whether the provider stores your input or uses it for training (publishers usually prohibit this explicitly for peer review). If you work with personal data from research participants, the GDPR and your own ethics review apply: running models locally or using an EU-hosted tool with data minimisation is then the safe route. Finally, document your search strategy and your AI use: journals and funders increasingly ask for this, and a review must remain reproducible.

Source documents

www.perplexity.aiopenrouter.ai

Everything about Perplexity Best AI for research & science

Summarised by the editorial team from provider documentation · not legal advice

Last checked: 29 October 2026 · How we check

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