Skip to main content

Comet vs Vertex AI

A feature-by-feature comparison of Comet and Vertex AI across 7 capability categories.

First tool

Try Comet (opens in a new tab)

Second tool

Try Vertex AI (opens in a new tab)

Modalities — Vertex AI Wins

Modalities: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Text Input	Yes, requires free plan. The sidecar assistant takes natural-language prompts for search, summaries, and page tasks.	Yes, requires plus plan. Gemini and other models via Generate Content API and Agent Studio.
Image Upload / Vision	Unknown. Vision on the current page is plausible for an in-browser agent, but Comet help does not spell out image attach.	Yes, requires plus plan. Gemini multimodal accepts images in the API and console.
Image Generation	Unknown. Image models exist on Perplexity web for some plans; not documented as a Comet browser feature.	Yes, requires plus plan. Imagen models in Model Garden and Vertex AI Studio.
Voice Mode	Unknown. Launch copy mentioned voice on mobile; the current Comet product page does not document a voice loop.	Partial. Speech APIs exist. Not a consumer voice-chat loop like Gemini app.
Video Understanding	Unknown. Perplexity can transcribe attached video on the web app; Comet-specific video understanding is not documented.	Yes, requires plus plan. Gemini video understanding in Agent Studio and the API.
Video Generation	No. Not a video generation product.	Yes, requires plus plan. Vertex AI serves Veo and other video generation models.
File Upload (PDF, DOCX)	Unknown. File attach is documented for Perplexity search, not as a Comet browser control.	Yes, requires plus plan. RAG with Cloud Storage and document ingestion in Agent Builder.
Code Execution	Unknown. The marketing site shows the assistant building a webpage in the browser; that is not a documented code sandbox.	Partial. Colab Enterprise and notebooks for code. Not a chat Python sandbox.
Audio Input	Unknown. Audio-file input is not described in Comet setup or privacy help.	Partial. Speech-to-text models available. Vertex is a platform, not a voice assistant.
Canvas / Artifact Editor	Yes, requires free plan. The assistant sits in a sidecar beside the page you are browsing.	No. Studio is a dev console, not a consumer canvas.
Screen Sharing / Computer Use	Yes, requires free plan. The assistant is documented acting on the live page (forms, shopping, posting) rather than only summarizing.	No. No computer-use desktop product.

Memory & Context — Vertex AI Wins

Memory & Context: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Persistent Memory	Unknown. Max “Brain” memory is documented for Perplexity Computer, not as a Comet default.	Partial. RAG corpora and agent session config. Distinct from consumer Gemini memory.
Large Context Window	Unknown. No token window is published for the Comet assistant.	Unknown. Depends on the Gemini/model version deployed.
Custom Instructions	Unknown. A global assistant-instruction setting was not found in Comet help.	Yes, requires plus plan. System instructions in Agent Studio and API prompts.
Conversation History	Partial. Comet is a full browser with history (cleared in Incognito). Assistant thread history across devices is not documented.	Partial. Session state in agents. API calls are otherwise stateless.

Integrations — Vertex AI Wins

Integrations: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Web Search / Browsing	Yes, requires free plan. Comet is built around Perplexity’s answer engine in the address bar and assistant.	Partial. Grounding with Google Search in Gemini API. Enterprise Agent Platform feature set.
Plugins / Extensions	Yes, requires free plan. Chromium extensions are supported; Incognito disables them unless you turn them back on.	Yes, requires plus plan. Extensions, tools, and Model Garden integrations.
API Access	No. Comet is a browser. Programmatic access is the separate Perplexity API, not a Comet REST product.	Yes, requires plus plan. Vertex AI REST/gRPC SDK. $300 credits for new accounts.
Zapier Integration	Unknown. No first-party Comet Zapier app was checked.	Unknown. No first-party Zapier listing was checked.
Custom GPTs / Bots	Partial. Email Assistant and Background Assistants are Max-tier agents, not a public custom-GPT store.	Yes, requires plus plan. Agent Builder and Agent Studio deploy custom agents.
Real-time Collaboration	Unknown. Shared multiplayer browsing sessions are not documented.	Partial. IAM-shared console and notebooks. Not multiplayer chat.
Live Social Data Integration	No. Not a live social-firehose product; it can browse social sites like any browser.	No. No live social firehose product.
Live Citation Mapping	Partial. Comet uses Perplexity’s answer engine, which cites sources on perplexity.ai; Comet help does not separately document citation UI in the sidecar.	Partial. Grounding with Search returns citations. RAG returns source chunks.

Developer — Vertex AI Wins

Developer: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Function Calling	Yes, requires free plan. The assistant is documented taking multi-step actions (shop, email, fill forms) rather than only answering.	Yes, requires plus plan. Function calling in Gemini and agent tool use.
Streaming Responses	Unknown. Token streaming in the sidecar is not called out in Comet help.	Yes, requires plus plan. Streaming generateContent responses.
Fine-Tuning	No. Comet runs hosted Perplexity/partner models; there is no custom-weight training product.	Yes, requires plus plan. Supervised fine-tuning and tuning jobs in Vertex AI.
Embeddings API	No. Not an embeddings API product.	Yes, requires plus plan. Text embeddings and Vector Search.
Structured Output (JSON)	Unknown. JSON-schema guarantees are not documented for the Comet assistant.	Yes, requires plus plan. JSON schema / response schema in Gemini API.
Reasoning / Thinking Mode	Partial. Max Assistant on Comet is documented as a slower, routed reasoning mode for Max subscribers, not a free Deep Think toggle.	Partial. Thinking/reasoning models in Gemini 2.x family. Platform-level, not a single toggle.
Local Execution	No. The browser runs locally; model inference stays on Perplexity’s cloud.	No. Cloud GCP inference. Distinct from Antigravity local dev.
Open Weights	No. Comet is not an open-weights model release.	Partial. Model Garden hosts open models (Gemma, Llama) plus Google proprietary models.
Multi-Agent Orchestration	Partial. Background Assistants (Max) run tasks asynchronously; that is not a general multi-agent SDK.	Yes, requires plus plan. Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform supports multi-agent flows.

Platforms — Comet Wins

Platforms: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Web App	No. You download Comet. The marketing site is not a browser-in-the-browser web app.	Yes, requires plus plan. Google Cloud console and Vertex AI Studio.
iOS App	Yes, requires free plan. Perplexity launched a Comet iOS app; the product page lists iOS.	No. No consumer iOS app. Distinct from Gemini mobile.
Android App	Yes, requires free plan. The product page lists Android alongside desktop.	No. No consumer Android app.
Desktop App	Yes, requires free plan. Standalone Mac and Windows browser; setup help covers install and default-browser.	No. Browser console, not a desktop chat app.
Chrome Extension	No. Comet is not distributed as a Chrome Web Store extension.	No. No Chrome extension.

Privacy — Vertex AI Wins

Privacy: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
GDPR Compliant	Unknown. Needs a read of Perplexity’s current DPA before we assert GDPR for Comet.	Partial. Google Cloud compliance offerings. Specific Vertex DPA not re-read.
Opt Out of Data Training	Unknown. Training opt-out is not documented on the Comet privacy-and-safety article we checked.	Partial. Enterprise terms restrict training on customer data. Consumer Gemini policies differ.
Enterprise Privacy Mode	Partial. Comet supports Chrome-like MDM policies (extensions, cookies, data clearing). That is not a published ZDR/SSO suite.	Yes, requires enterprise plan. VPC-SC, CMEK, and Gemini Enterprise privacy controls.

Workspaces — Tie

Workspaces: Comet compared with Vertex AI
Feature	Comet	Vertex AI
Projects / Folders	Unknown. Browser profiles exist; Perplexity Spaces inside Comet were not confirmed.	Unknown. Overlapping columns disagreed (yes vs partial); left unverified rather than copying a no.