Perplexity's Decisions API can now search the web before it answers

Perplexity's developer account says the Decisions API now has a web-grounding mode. With "mode": "web_grounding", Fast Search runs one query per question and its results join the state as evidence before the decision model, pplx-decider-v1.2, answers. Passing a URL as the state asks about that page.

Perplexity's own test figures: 86% on the 100 public PWS-Decisions questions with web grounding, against 51% without it, with median latency of 370 ms and p95 of 685 ms. Requests cost $0.001 per search and $0.02 per 1M tokens. Suggested uses include fact-checking a list of claims, checking whether a pinned package has a newer stable release, and flagging accounts with a new CEO, an acquisition or layoffs.