Perplexity is set to start testing ads on its platform this week, beginning in the US. Ads will be formatted as "sponsored follow-up questions" positioned to the side of answers and will be marked as "sponsored."

Initial brands include Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann and PMG. Perplexity aims to generate revenue to share with publisher partners through these ads because subscriptions alone aren’t enough.

The answers of these “sponsored questions” will still be generated by its AI, and will not be edited by brands.