Perplexity Not Working? Fixes for Web, Mobile, and API

## Check Status, Account, and Basic Access

Before debugging anything local, confirm the service is actually up.

**Check the status page.** Visit status.perplexity.ai. If there’s an active incident, no local fix will help — wait for resolution and check back.

**Verify your session.** Log out completely, then log back in. If you use Google or Apple SSO, make sure the linked account hasn’t changed its password or revoked app permissions.

**Confirm your plan.** Some features (Pro Search, specific models, file uploads) require a paid plan. If a feature suddenly stops working, check your account settings to confirm your subscription is active and hasn’t lapsed due to a payment failure.

**Try a different device.** Open Perplexity on your phone while it fails on desktop (or vice versa). If it works on one device but not the other, the problem is client-side — skip to Step 02.

## Try a Clean Browser or App Session

Most “Perplexity stopped working” reports trace back to browser extensions or stale cached data.

**Incognito test.** Open a private/incognito window (no extensions load by default) and navigate to perplexity.ai. If it works here, an extension is the culprit.

**Common extension conflicts:**
– **Ad blockers** (uBlock Origin, AdGuard): These can block Perplexity’s streaming endpoints. In uBlock Origin specifically, the default filter lists are usually fine, but if you’ve added aggressive third-party lists like “Fanboy’s Enhanced Tracking” or custom rules that block `api.perplexity.ai` or SSE connections, those will prevent answers from loading. Add `perplexity.ai` to your allowlist or create a rule: `@@||perplexity.ai^$document`.
– **Privacy extensions** (Privacy Badger, Disconnect): May block third-party connections Perplexity needs for model inference. Privacy Badger in particular can learn to block Perplexity’s API subdomains after a few visits if it detects them as trackers.
– **VPN browser extensions**: Can route traffic through regions where latency causes timeouts.
– **JSON viewer or developer extensions**: Extensions that intercept and parse JSON or SSE streams (like JSON Formatter) can interfere with Perplexity’s response streaming.

**Clear site data (Chrome):**

1. Open chrome://settings/content/all
2. Search for "perplexity"
3. Click the trash icon to remove all stored data
4. Restart Chrome and log in again

**Clear site data (Safari):**

1. Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data
2. Search "perplexity" → Remove
3. Restart Safari

**Clear site data (Firefox):**

1. Open about:preferences#privacy
2. Manage Data → search "perplexity" → Remove Selected
3. Restart Firefox

**Mobile app (iOS):** Force-close the app (swipe up from app switcher), then go to Settings → Perplexity → Clear Cache if available. If that doesn’t work, delete and reinstall the app.

**Mobile app (Android):** Settings → Apps → Perplexity → Storage → Clear Cache. If the problem persists, tap Clear Data (this logs you out) and reinstall.

## Check Network and Connection Issues

Perplexity streams responses over WebSocket-like connections. Anything that interrupts persistent connections will break answer generation — even if the initial page loads fine.

**Switch networks.** If you’re on Wi-Fi, try mobile data (or vice versa). Corporate and university networks often block WebSocket traffic or run deep packet inspection that interferes with streaming.

**Disable VPN temporarily.** VPNs add latency and some exit nodes are rate-limited or blocked by AI services. Test without the VPN first; if it works, try a different VPN server location.

**Check DNS.** Corrupted DNS cache can cause intermittent failures:

# macOS
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

# Windows
ipconfig /flushdns

# Linux
sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches

**Firewall and proxy.** If you’re behind a corporate firewall or proxy, confirm that `*.perplexity.ai` domains are allowlisted. Some organizations block AI tools at the network level — check with your IT team.

## Fix API-Specific Problems

If you’re using the Perplexity API programmatically, the debugging path is different from the web or mobile app.

**Verify your API key.** Keys can be revoked, expired, or scoped to specific endpoints. Generate a fresh key from your Perplexity API settings and test with a minimal curl request:

curl -X POST https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"sonar","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"test"}]}'

**Check rate limits.** HTTP 429 responses mean you’ve exceeded your plan’s rate limit. The response headers may include `Retry-After` — respect that value before retrying. If you’re running automated pipelines, add exponential backoff.

**Model availability.** Not all models are available on all plans. If you’re requesting a specific model and getting errors, try the default `sonar` model to confirm your key and setup work, then check whether your plan includes the model you need.

**Timeout handling.** Complex queries with web search enabled can take longer. Set your HTTP client timeout to at least 30 seconds. If you’re using a library wrapper, check its default timeout — many default to 10 seconds, which is too short for search-augmented queries.

import httpx

client = httpx.Client(timeout=60.0)  # generous timeout for search queries

## Platform-Specific Edge Cases

Some failures are tied to specific operating systems or browsers.

**Safari on macOS:** Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) can interfere with Perplexity’s authentication cookies. If you’re stuck in a login loop, go to Safari → Settings → Privacy and uncheck “Prevent cross-site tracking” temporarily to test.

**Chrome on Android:** If Perplexity loads but answers never appear, check that Chrome’s “Lite mode” or any data-saver feature is disabled. These modes can strip WebSocket connections.

**iOS app after OS update:** Major iOS updates sometimes break app permissions. After updating iOS, open Settings → Perplexity and confirm it still has network access permission.

**Windows with antivirus:** Some antivirus software (especially Kaspersky and ESET) intercepts HTTPS traffic for inspection. This can break streaming connections. Add `perplexity.ai` to the antivirus HTTPS exclusion list.

**Browser version:** Perplexity relies on modern web APIs including server-sent events and dynamic imports. If you’re on an outdated browser, update it to the latest version to avoid compatibility issues.