The API is powered by Photon, a Rust-based retrieval and ranking engine that replaces Perplexity's previous open-source system. Built by a small team using $300k in tokens and auto-research loops, Photon dropped internal p99 response times from 800 ms to 65 ms and uses 20% fewer serving machines to store 2.5x as much data per document. Nous Research has already integrated the tool as the default search for Hermes Agent subscribers on the Nous Portal.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
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Perplexity Cuts Agent Search Costs 68% With Lowest Latency API
AI26 days ago
The company’s latest search tool for AI agents returns 95% of results in 230 milliseconds or less, Perplexity announced. The new Fast Search API achieves a median latency of 160 ms and reduced the cost per task by 68% across six agentic benchmarks compared to the company's default preset while maintaining comparable answer quality.
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