Record · perplexity-mMCP serverOpen sourceVerified Sep 23, 2026

Perplexity MCP Server

Perplexity's official MCP server for real-time web search, reasoning and research through its API.

Visit Perplexity MCP Server →View source

Sources and review

Checked against public documentation on September 23, 2026. Suitability guidance is our editorial judgment; this is not a performance benchmark or an endorsement.

Best for

Adding cited, up-to-date web research to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or VS Code.

Avoid if

You don't have a Perplexity API key; both the remote and local servers need one.

About Perplexity MCP Server

Perplexity's official MCP server gives AI assistants real-time web search, reasoning and research through the Perplexity Agent API and Search API. A hosted remote server needs nothing installed; a local server runs from npm, and a self-hosted HTTP mode and corporate proxy settings are documented.

Perplexity MCP Server is an open-source project written primarily in TypeScript, with 2.5k stars on GitHub. It was last updated in August 2026.

Add Perplexity MCP Server to your MCP client

Generated from the launch command in the project's README. Your client starts the server on demand. Replace <your-api-key> with your own value first.

Claude CodeRun in your terminal

claude mcp add perplexity-mcp-server -e 'PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=<your-api-key>' -- npx -y @perplexity-ai/mcp-server

Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "perplexity-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.perplexity-mcp-server]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"]
env = { PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = "<your-api-key>" }

Check the project's README for required accounts, keys and permissions before connecting. Setup guide for each client →

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