Perplexity launched Comet AI browser in July 2025 as a Chromium-based alternative that integrates AI directly into browsing workflows. The browser competes with The Browser Company's Dia and rumored OpenAI "Aura" browser, while requiring a $20/month Perplexity Max subscription for full functionality. Key advantages include built-in ad blocking, seamless integration with Gmail/Calendar, and the ability to execute complex research workflows through natural language commands rather than manual tab switching.
Below I showcase three use cases where Comet AI browser is particularly useful for researchers.
Agentic Browser: Tab operations
"Open the 3 most recent protein–ligand complexes for GSK3B from the PDB and use the 'Ligand Interaction' view."
This is where Comet really becomes impressive. Rather than just providing links or information, Comet executed the entire workflow. It identified the three most recent GSK3B complexes (8QJI, 8AUZ, and the third structure), opened them in separate browser tabs, and automatically configured each to display the "Ligand Interaction" view. The result: instant, ready-to-analyze molecular visualizations. This demonstrates Comet's potential as an agentic browser. It's not just retrieving information, or shoping it's performing complex, multi-step tasks that require understanding context and interface.
As a total data nerd with the tab hoarding habit to match, I usually have tens of tabs open across several browser windows—you know the drill. But Comet's AI actually makes finding that one crucial tab from yesterday's research rabbit hole effortless, instead of the usual archaeological expedition through Chrome's tab graveyard.
Pretty sure that the line between MCP, Agent-to-Agent communication and separate web-accessed AI will disappear. AI here, AI there, AI will be everywhere 🙂
Summarization
First thing I tested with a ChatGPT is article summarization. It’s a huge and one of the most valuable piece of current AI systems. You can do it in whatever flavor: gentle or harsh, extract some specific information during the summarization process, a common process. Several weeks ago I literally spent a full day coding a Chrome extension for PDF summarization because going thru arxiv publication was a bit overwhelming. Comet browser can do pdf summarization right away. And of course not just pdfs - videos and podcasts.
Important: Once summarized, Comet can move summary into other tools like Notion, and hopefully via Chrome extensions also (Obsidian Clipper please!). Comet hints at this capability, though the current implementation isn't quite there yet. The integration features feel like they're still finding their footing, just question of time.
Advanced search
Here I went completely hardcore: "Find the 5 most recent protein-ligand complexes in the PDB for drugs in clinical trials: provide links to PDB. Provide ChEMBL links for the corresponding target proteins." This is the kind of hyper-specific, technical query that can be done with MCP that I described earlier.
Comet delivered exactly what I asked for - a structured list of recent protein-ligand complexes with PDB entries and direct links to ChEMBL targets. But here's the drawback: Comet is using Perplexity under the hood for this task, which isn't dramatically different from using Perplexity itself. But the convenience is a real factor. You have all those links there, ready to click and swirl PL interactions.
So, Chrome/Firefox and others are under a lot of pressure. But are we going to need browsers per se?