Perplexity puts a $200/mo AI agent on your Windows desktop to wrangle local files

Perplexity is no longer just a web-bound answer engine. The company has expanded its agentic Personal Computer tool to Windows, effectively turning any PC into a local AI operating partner. Think of it as a “general-purpose digital worker” that doesn’t just read your files but acts on them — creating documents, updating spreadsheets, and bridging the gap between your local desktop and the cloud. This follows the Mac launch in April and builds on Microsoft 365 integrations from May. Perplexity itself noted that most enterprise grunt work happens locally on Windows devices, “out of AI’s reach” — until now.

“Now Microsoft users can ask Computer to work across their local files, Microsoft Office 365, and the web in one place,” the company said, describing the tool as being built for “the often messy way enterprise work gets done on local machines.” That’s the core pitch: fewer tab-switching marathons and more delegation. It’s a direct volley at Microsoft’s own Copilot ambitions, but with a crucial difference — Perplexity is operating as a third-party layer on top of the OS rather than a native feature.

The privilege doesn’t come cheap. Personal Computer for Windows is locked behind the Max and Enterprise Max tiers, which start at $200 per month. For that price, you get some guardrails: Perplexity says the tool doesn’t train on company data and will always notify users before performing sensitive actions like sending emails or deleting files. That notification promise is essential because handing an AI the keys to your local file system is a trust exercise that most IT departments will scrutinize heavily.

Whether enterprises are ready to pay a premium for a non-Microsoft agent to operate inside Microsoft’s own ecosystem is the big open question. The tool is available starting today for paying subscribers.