Perplexity

Configuration

'perplexity' => [
    'api_key' => env('PERPLEXITY_API_KEY', ''),
    'url' => env('PERPLEXITY_URL', 'https://api.perplexity.ai'),
]

Documents

Sonar models support document analysis through file uploads. You can provide files either as URLs to publicly accessible documents or as base64 encoded bytes. Ask questions about document content, get summaries, extract information, and perform detailed analysis of uploaded files in multiple formats including PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, and RTF.

• The maximum file size is 50MB. Files larger than this limit will not be processed
• Ensure provided HTTPS URLs are publicly accessible Check it out the documentation for more details

Images

Sonar models support image analysis through direct image uploads. You can include images in your API requests to support multi-modal conversations alongside text. Images can be provided either as base64 encoded strings within a data URI or as standard HTTPS URLs.

• When using base64 encoding, the API currently only supports images up to 50 MB per image
• Supported formats for base64 encoded images: PNG (image/png), JPEG (image/jpeg), WEBP (image/webp), and GIF (image/gif)
• When using an HTTPS URL, the model will attempt to fetch the image from the provided URL. Ensure the URL is publicly accessible.

Considerations

Message Order

• Message order matters. Perplexity is strict about the message order being:

1. SystemMessage
2. UserMessage
3. AssistantMessage

Additional fields

Perplexity outputs additional fields in the response, such as citations, search_results, and the reasoning that is extracted from the model response. These fields are exposed in the response object via the property additionalFields. e.g $response->additionalFields['citations'].

Token Usage

Prism reports Perplexity's prompt_tokens and completion_tokens as they come back. Perplexity doesn't report cached input, so cacheReadInputTokens and cacheWriteInputTokens are always null.

Perplexity's reasoning_tokens and citation_tokens sit outside the Token Usage contract. Its total_tokens is just prompt plus completion, so there's no way to tell whether reasoning is already counted in completion_tokens. Rather than guess, Prism leaves completionTokens as reported and thoughtTokens as null.

That also means Usage isn't your Perplexity bill. Reasoning and citation tokens (billed on Sonar Deep Research) and the per-request and search fees aren't in it, so use Perplexity's own usage dashboard when you need the full cost.

Structured Output

Perplexity supports two types of structured outputs: JSON Schema and Regex; but currently Prism only supports JSON Schema.

Here's an example of how to use JSON Schema for structured output:

use Prism\Prism\Enums\Provider;
use Prism\Prism\Facades\Prism;
use Prism\Prism\Schema\ObjectSchema;
use Prism\Prism\Schema\StringSchema;

$response = Prism::structured()
    ->withSchema(new ObjectSchema(
        'weather_report',
        'Weather forecast with recommendations',
        [
            new StringSchema('forecast', 'The weather forecast'),
            new StringSchema('recommendation', 'Clothing recommendation')
        ],
        ['forecast', 'recommendation']
    ))
    ->using(Provider::Perplexity, 'sonar-pro')
    ->withPrompt('What\'s the weather like and what should I wear?')
    ->asStructured();