OfficialFeaturedMCP server · stdioRequires credentials

🔍Perplexity

Give Claude real-time web answers, search, deep research, and reasoning via the Perplexity Sonar API.

What it does

Perplexity's official MCP server gives Claude real-time, source-grounded answers from the Sonar API.

What it gives Claude:

perplexity_search — direct web search returning ranked results with metadata
perplexity_ask — conversational answers with live web search (sonar-pro)
perplexity_research — in-depth analysis via the deep-research model
perplexity_reason — multi-step problem solving (sonar-reasoning-pro)

Needs a Perplexity API key, set as PERPLEXITY_API_KEY. Get one from the Perplexity API Portal (usage is pay-as-you-go via Sonar API credits). Maintained by Perplexity AI under the MIT license.

Installation

Before you start

Get a Perplexity API key from the API Portal (pay-as-you-go via Sonar API credits). Swap YOUR_API_KEY in the command for it.

1
Make sure Claude is on your device and in your terminal.
MCP servers register with Claude Code via claude mcp add. You need Claude Code installed first:
```
npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
```

Set up the server on your machine.

Setup

claude mcp a•• •••••••••••••• •• •••• ••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• ••• •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Runs the project's installer (clone + dependencies + config). Follow any prompts. After this finishes, the server is ready to register with Claude Code in the next step.

Configure credentials.
Needs a Perplexity API key set as PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, obtained from the Perplexity API Portal at perplexity.ai/account/api/group.
Restart Claude Code.
Quit and reopen Claude Code so it picks up the new MCP registration. Run /mcp inside Claude Code to confirm the server is connected.
Use it.
Ask Claude naturally. It will call the server's tools when your request matches one. Tool calls show up inline so you can see exactly what Claude is doing.

Prefer to read the source first? Open on GitHub.