Perplexity MCP Server
Perplexity's official MCP server for real-time web search, reasoning and research through its API.
Sources and review
Checked against public documentation on . Suitability guidance is our editorial judgment; this is not a performance benchmark or an endorsement.
Adding cited, up-to-date web research to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or VS Code.
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 listed in this index written primarily in TypeScript, with 2.6k stars on GitHub. Its latest recorded repository push was in October 2026; that is not an ASE editorial review date.
Before connecting: access and data
This record's specific permissions have not been reviewed by ASE. Read the publisher's documentation before copying setup or connecting.
- List the accounts, files and services the enabled tools can read, change or execute. Check your actual credentials and discovered tools.
- Use narrowly scoped credentials and read-only mode where supported. Review proposed writes before approving them; a generated configuration does not apply these limits for you.
- Local launch is not local-only data processing. External services receive requests, and your client may pass tool results to its model provider. Check both destinations before sharing private data.
- Keep keys and browser session files out of shared config, repositories and screenshots. Know how to disconnect the server and separately revoke its credentials or account sessions.
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 Code
claude mcp add perplexity-mcp-server -e 'PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=<your-api-key>' -- npx -y @perplexity-ai/mcp-serverCursor
{
"mcpServers": {
"perplexity-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
"env": {
"PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
}
}
}
}VS Code
{
"servers": {
"perplexity-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
"env": {
"PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
}
}
}
}Claude Desktop
{
"mcpServers": {
"perplexity-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"],
"env": {
"PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
}
}
}
}Codex
[mcp_servers.perplexity-mcp-server]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@perplexity-ai/mcp-server"]
env = { PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = "<your-api-key>" }