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Perplexity AI: what owners actually say
Users who've tried it love the cited-source answers, but the broader community is furious over Perplexity's scraping and robots.txt practices
What owners complain about
- Ignores robots.txt and bypasses access controls COMMON
Multiple commenters across HN and Lemmy report that Perplexity does not respect robots.txt, with some saying the company openly admits to bypassing technological barriers meant to keep bots out. Several suggest this could constitute unauthorized access under the CFAA.
- Copyright and content theft concerns COMMON
Commenters argue Perplexity copies and republishes content in a way that directly competes with original creators, destroying market value. Strong language calling it 'theft' and 'slurping up content for free' appears repeatedly across platforms.
- Seen as worse or more unethical than OpenAI SOME
Lemmy commenters explicitly state Perplexity 'seems to be trying hard' to be 'a shittier company than OpenAI,' referencing union-busting behavior including pitching AI during staff strikes.
- DDoS-like behavior on the web FEW
One commenter notes Perplexity's current approach is 'basically DDOSing the internet for training data and also for responding to user interactions,' describing an unsustainable data-gathering pattern.
- Search quality not matching alternatives FEW
Compared unfavorably to DDG ('ddg at least feels like I'm getting actual results') and Kagi ('very happy... crossed one year... don't see why I would go back'). Boolean operators and niche search are missed.
What owners love
- Cited sources with every answer
Users consistently praise that Perplexity provides source links alongside answers, unlike ChatGPT. Website owners specifically appreciate this as showing 'respect' for content creators, and professionals find it 'handy for reference links for presentations.'
- Daily driver for quick answers
One user states 'I use it every day, and I can't live without him.' Others describe it as their go-to for when they want a single answer rather than wading through ten blue links.
- Strong ChatGPT alternative
Multiple users discovered it while searching for a ChatGPT alternative and report it delivers 'accurate answers' they trust enough to cite in work.
Surprising patterns
- Content owners are actively discussing deploying invisible prompt injections throughout their content to sabotage or redirect Perplexity's LLM responses as a defensive countermeasure.
- The legal debate is so intense that HN commenters produced multi-paragraph technical-legal analyses distinguishing between authenticated user-agents making authorized requests versus unauthorized redistribution — the level of legal scrutiny is unusual for a consumer product.
- Perplexity's behavior is driving users toward paid alternatives like Kagi, which commenters frame as a return to 'search engines that honored Boolean operators' — suggesting Perplexity's controversy is actively boosting competitors.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Content creators and website owners who are concerned about unauthorized scraping will find Perplexity's documented disregard for robots.txt and access controls a dealbreaker, especially given the active community discussion around legal countermeasures.
Synthesised from 743 real owner comments across 5 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →