How to Cite Perplexity

APA does not currently publish a dedicated example for this exact source type. The format below applies APA's current AI citation principles to this source.

What APA does publish is two worked AI forms: an AI tool — Google. (2025). Gemini 3 Flash [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com — and an AI chat, which adds the day and a title and moves the tool's name after the brackets. See APA's AI references examples page and its reference-formats post and judge for yourself. The entry below sits between the two: it takes the tool form's year-only date and [Large language model] label, and the chat form's habit of putting a description in the title slot and Perplexity after the brackets. APA publishes neither combination. It is built from APA's own elements and its own stated rules — the company is the author, the label is adaptable, and the version parenthetical is retired — but the arrangement is Citation[Z]'s, so a marker who wants one of APA's two printed forms is not wrong to ask for it.

And check first whether you need this entry at all. APA's companion post on AI as a search engine says that if you used AI "as a search engine or intermediary to find information, similar to using Google search or a database search, it is in most cases not necessary to cite AI at all" — you cite the sources you went on to read. The entry below is for when the report itself is what you are discussing.

Perplexity AI → year → answer/report description → [Large language model] → Perplexity → link. Build it in the generator under Manual Entry → AI tool.

No version parenthetical. APA stopped asking for one by default in September 2025. Deep Research is a mode, not a version, so say so in your description of the answer. If you can share the thread, APA's chat form fits better — see how to cite an AI conversation.

Perplexity is an "answer engine": instead of a chat that makes things up, it searches the web and answers with numbered citations to real sources inline. That design changes the citation advice — for Perplexity, the sources aren't hidden, they're the whole point.

So in most cases you should click through and cite the original source Perplexity used, not Perplexity itself. Cite Perplexity only when its own synthesis is what you're relying on (or for a Deep Research report).

• Default: cite the linked source. Perplexity numbers its sources — open the one that supports your point and cite it directly. It's verifiable and carries real authority.
• Cite Perplexity only when you're quoting its own wording or a Deep Research synthesis.
• Author is Perplexity AI when you do cite it, with Perplexity as the source. Say you used Deep Research in your description of the answer — it is a mode, not a version, and APA no longer asks for a version anyway.
• Use the shareable thread URL as the link, and keep your query.