> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fetchhive.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Perplexity Search

> Search the web with Perplexity's standalone Search API from any workflow

Use **Perplexity Search** when a workflow needs normalized web results from Perplexity's standalone Search API.

This is different from **Sonar Web Search**. Perplexity Search is a workflow step and cross-provider agent tool backed by `POST /search`. Sonar Web Search is native search available only to agents using Perplexity Sonar models.

## Configuration

| Option                   | Required | Description                                                                                                                    |
| ------------------------ | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Name                     | No       | Label shown on the workflow canvas.                                                                                            |
| Search Query             | Yes      | Non-empty query. Use **Insert Variable** to include prior step output.                                                         |
| Number of results        | No       | Maximum results from 1 to 20. The default is 10.                                                                               |
| Country                  | No       | ISO country restriction. The default is United States; choose **No country restriction** to omit it.                           |
| Search context size      | No       | `Low`, `Medium`, or `High` extracted-content preset. The default is `High`. Select **Custom token limits** to omit the preset. |
| Maximum total tokens     | No       | Total extracted webpage-content limit from 1 to 1,000,000.                                                                     |
| Maximum tokens per page  | No       | Per-result-page content limit from 1 to 1,000,000. Setting either token limit omits search context size.                       |
| Search languages         | No       | Up to 20 ISO 639-1 language codes selected from the searchable multi-select.                                                   |
| Updated after / before   | No       | Optional last-updated date range. The after date must be earlier than the before date.                                         |
| Published after / before | No       | Optional publication date range. The after date must be earlier than the before date. Dates are sent as `MM/DD/YYYY`.          |
| Publication recency      | No       | Past `hour`, `day`, `week`, `month`, or `year`.                                                                                |
| Credentials              | No       | **Hosted** uses Fetch Hive's Perplexity connection. **Personal** requires an enabled Perplexity integration in the workspace.  |
| When the step fails      | No       | Terminate the workflow or continue after an error.                                                                             |

The step supports parallelization. Each version keeps its own query, credential mode, and complete search-option set and performs a separate search call.

## Output

The output is an array of normalized results. Each result can contain:

```json theme={null}
{
  "title": "Example result",
  "url": "https://example.com/result",
  "snippet": "A short result excerpt",
  "date": "2026-07-24",
  "last_updated": "2026-07-24"
}
```

Optional fields are omitted when Perplexity does not return them. An empty array is a successful, billable search and can be passed directly to an iterator:

```text theme={null}
{{perplexity_search.output}}
```

## Billing and limits

Hosted calls use Perplexity's fixed Search API request cost plus the standard platform markup. Personal calls use one platform task and your workspace integration. Each actual request consumes one provider-tool limit unit; validation failures do not.

See also: [Workflow step overview](../overview), [Error Handling](../../error-handling), and [Perplexity Search for agents](../../../agents/mcp-tools/perplexity-search-api)