What Automations Are and Who They Are For
Perplexity Automations, introduced in September, are scheduled or event-triggered workflows that run inside Perplexity Computer without requiring manual input each time. You define a trigger, set the steps, and Perplexity executes the workflow automatically. The target user is anyone who currently spends time on repeatable research or communication tasks that follow a predictable pattern.
The clearest use cases: a daily briefing that pulls from specific sources and summarizes findings, a weekly scan of mentions across competitors or topics, a workflow that monitors a dataset and alerts you when a threshold is crossed. These are tasks that currently require either manual repetition or a separate automation tool — Automations brings that capability directly into Perplexity.
How Automations Connect to Your Tools
Automations integrate with Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and Linear at launch, with more services added over time. The integration works bidirectionally: Automations can read from and write to connected apps. You can set up a workflow that reads incoming emails for specific criteria, pulls relevant context from Slack channels, and posts a compiled summary to a shared workspace.
For teams using Linear for project management, Automations can watch for status changes, sprint completions, or blockers and automatically draft summaries or flag stakeholders without manual reporting.
The Memory and Skills System
Automations leverage Computer memory — the persistent context that Perplexity builds across conversations. Rather than starting each automation run with no context, Computer applies accumulated knowledge about your preferences, priorities, and past findings. Skills — reusable configured capabilities — can be attached to Automations so that a workflow you have already configured for one task can be applied to a new scenario without rebuilding.
For example, if you have built a skill for synthesizing market research summaries, you can attach that skill to any Automation that involves research rather than configuring the synthesis process from scratch each time.
How to Build Your First Automation
Navigate to Computer in Perplexity and select Automations, then New Automation. Define the trigger: time-based (daily at a set hour, weekly on specific days) or event-based (new email matching criteria, new Slack message in a watched channel). Then describe the steps in plain language — what to fetch, how to synthesize, where to deliver the output. Perplexity builds the workflow from your description.
After the first run, review the output and adjust the description if the results do not match your intent. Automations improve through iteration just like any AI workflow.
Limits and What to Expect
Automations are available for Pro and Max subscribers, with usage limits that vary by plan. Free users do not have access. The automations credit system operates separately from regular Computer credits — check your plan details for the specific allocation.
The practical constraint: Automations work best for well-defined, repeatable tasks with clear inputs and outputs. Ambiguous research questions that benefit from human judgment are still better handled through direct Computer interaction. Automations shine for the category of work that is predictable but time-consuming — exactly the kind of task that erodes deep work time when done manually.