How to Cite Perplexity AI (and When to Cite Its Sources Instead)

Perplexity sits between a chatbot and a search engine. It runs web searches, writes an answer, and attaches numbered sources. That design changes the citation question. With a chatbot you ask "how do I cite this answer?" With Perplexity the first question is "should I be citing the answer at all?" The general rules for all AI tools are in the main guide to citing AI tools.

Usually, cite the sources

APA's Part 2 guidance (September 2025) says that if you used AI as a search engine or intermediary to find information, it is in most cases not necessary to cite the AI at all, just as you would not cite a Google results page. MLA's 2025 update says to click through to the sources an AI tool cites and use those directly, and warns that AI tools can make up sources.

In practice:

1. Click the numbered source next to the sentence you care about.
2. Check that the page exists, that it says what Perplexity says it says, and that it is something you would be willing to cite. An answer engine can draw on forums, company blogs and news sites as well as journals.
3. If it passes, cite that page or paper in your style, as if you had found it yourself. You did.
4. If the claim is not in the source, drop the claim or find a source that does support it.

Our guide to citing sources you found through AI tools goes further into this workflow.

When Perplexity itself is the source

• You quote or closely paraphrase Perplexity's own summary.
• The synthesis is Perplexity's: it combined several sources into a comparison or conclusion that none of them states, and you are using that conclusion.
• You are writing about AI search, and the answer is your data.
• Your course requires every AI interaction to be cited or logged.

What is specific to Perplexity

The author is Perplexity AI. That is the company name APA uses in its examples. The product is called Perplexity.

Conversations are private until you change them. Perplexity's help center now calls a conversation a session (the article's address still says thread, and many guides still do). Its sharing options are Private, where only you can view the content even if you have pasted the link somewhere public, and Anyone with the link, where anyone who has the link can open it and pass it on. Enterprise Pro subscribers also have an organisation-only option, which is no use to an outside reader. You can change a shared session back to Private. For a citation that means the link is only as stable as your settings, so keep a PDF or screenshot.

Models and modes vary. Record the model or mode if the interface shows it. Do not replace the author with the underlying model's company: you used Perplexity.

The formats

APA 7. These two references are APA's own published examples, a shared conversation and the tool in general:

In text: (Perplexity AI, 2025). For your own conversation, replace the date, the title and the URL with yours.

MLA 9, applying MLA's template (its worked examples use ChatGPT):

Chicago note, following the form in Chicago's online Q&A (no bibliography entry unless the conversation is public or your instructor asks):

Harvard, following Robert Gordon University Library's reproduction of Cite Them Right, which names the company and the tool together (its example is "Google Bard"): Perplexity AI Perplexity ([year]) [The query you submitted]. Perplexity response to [Your Name]. Available at: [URL] (Accessed: [day month year]). The doubled name looks odd, and university variants differ, so check yours.

IEEE has no official format and asks for disclosure in the acknowledgments. University guides to the AMA Manual of Style say generative AI is not cited in the reference list, and ICMJE says referencing AI-generated material as the primary source is not acceptable. For biomedical writing in particular, a Perplexity answer should never appear where a study belongs.

A worked example

Suppose you ask Perplexity about microplastics in drinking water, and its answer points to the World Health Organization's 2019 report Microplastics in drinking-water, which examined the evidence on occurrence and potential health impacts and identified key knowledge gaps.

Wrong: citing (Perplexity AI, 2026) for a claim about what the WHO found. Also wrong: citing the WHO report from Perplexity's sentence without opening it.

Right: open the WHO report, find the passage, make sure the wording of your claim matches what the report says, and cite the report: World Health Organization. (2019). Microplastics in drinking-water. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516198. Perplexity does not appear in your reference list. If your course asks for disclosure, add a line such as: "I used Perplexity on [date] to locate sources; I read every source cited here in full."

Sources

All pages were checked on 21 September 2026.

• American Psychological Association, Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 2, AI as a search engine and AI integrated into common software and Part 1, reference formats (9 September 2025)
• MLA Style Center, How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? (Updated and Revised) (13 August 2025)
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online, Q&A: citing content developed or generated by AI; for the 18th edition's paywalled section on AI-generated content, McMaster University Library (which cites 14.111) and Columbia College Library
• Cite Them Right is paywalled; we followed Robert Gordon University Library
• IEEE Author Center, Submission and peer review policies: AI-generated content
• The AMA Manual of Style is paywalled; we followed Himmelfarb Library, George Washington University and Duquesne University Library
• ICMJE, Recommendations: artificial intelligence, use by authors
• Perplexity Help Center, What is a Session?
• World Health Organization, Microplastics in drinking-water (28 August 2019)