Perplexity Fast Search

A cheaper, faster mode of the Perplexity Search API for developers whose agents make lots of web searches.

Turn it on by setting search_type to "fast" in a Search API request.
Priced at $1 per 1,000 requests.
Runs on Photon, a new retrieval and ranking service Perplexity wrote in Rust, which now handles ranking across Perplexity's search systems.
Perplexity reports a 160 ms median response and 95% of results back in 230 ms or less.
Across six agent benchmarks, Perplexity says it cut cost per task by 68% compared with the default search preset, at comparable quality.
It is also now the default search in Hermes Agent for Nous Portal subscribers.
The Python and TypeScript SDKs need a documented workaround to use it for now.