Perplexity Teammates: How to Use the New Always-On AI Agents in India, and Is Max Worth It?
Perplexity just pushed AI past the chat box. Perplexity Teammates are always-on agents that keep working after you close the tab: triage bugs, dig into a market brief, watch a Slack channel, then ping you when a decision is needed. If you have been waiting for agents that feel like colleagues rather than one-shot prompts, this is the launch to understand.
Here is what Teammates actually do, how to set one up, what Max costs in India, and our take on whether the upgrade is worth it for founders, freelancers and small teams.
What Perplexity Teammates actually are
According to Perplexity’s launch posts and help centre, Teammates are AI agents built for ongoing work. You give each one a role and a responsibility. It plans tasks, follows through, keeps memory between sessions, and can hand pieces of work to other teammates when a job grows.
That is a different pitch from a normal Perplexity search or a single Computer session. Chat answers a question. A teammate owns a lane: research digest every Monday, GitHub review comments, sales follow-ups, competitor tracking. Perplexity says agents can monitor connected tools, act when something changes, and message you when they need a human call.
The Verge notes that Teammates sit on top of Perplexity Computer and compete in the same zone as OpenAI’s agent features and Anthropic’s coding agents. The hard gate is price: this research preview is for individual Max subscribers on the web, not Free or Pro, and not Enterprise by default.
How to use Perplexity Teammates (step by step)
Perplexity’s help article walks through setup clearly. You need an individual Max plan and the web app.
- Upgrade to Max under Settings → Account → Subscription if you are on Free or Pro. Upgrade on the same platform you already pay on, so you do not end up with overlapping subscriptions.
- Open Teammates in the left sidebar and hit the plus button to create one.
- Name the role something specific: “Weekly India market brief,” “#support triage,” “Repo PR watcher.” Vague names lead to vague agents.
- Add instructions in Advanced: what success looks like, the schedule, and what to do when stuck.
- Connect tools from the teammate’s chat. Ask it to connect Slack, GitHub or Gmail, then approve only the channels or repos it needs.
- Assign an opening task tied to a Project so files and context carry over.
Useful prompt shape from Perplexity’s own guidance: say where the work comes from, what the output should be, when it should run, and who should see it. Example: “Every weekday at 9 a.m. IST, summarise new messages in #project-updates and post the digest here.”
Perplexity Teammates pricing in India: is Max worth it?
Perplexity lists Max at $200 per month or $2,000 per year (annual billing on web). On the India App Store, Max has been listed around ₹19,900 per month, which is a steep jump from Pro for most people.
Our take: Teammates are worth Max only if you already have a recurring job ready to hand off on day one. Weekly research digests, support triage, competitor notes, or a narrow ops loop. If you mostly ask one-off questions, Pro still covers more of what you need for far less money.
Indian buyers should do the maths in rupees, not dollars. ₹19,900 a month is real money next to a family streaming bill. Start with one narrowly scoped teammate, keep human review on for anything that sends mail or posts in Slack, and measure hours saved for two weeks before you add more agents.
Also note the platform trap Perplexity warns about: upgrading via mobile while Pro was billed on web can create a second subscription. Match the upgrade path to how you already pay.
What Teammates can (and cannot) do well
From Perplexity’s docs and early reporting, Teammates shine when the work is repetitive, tool-connected and reviewable:
- Research briefs that refresh on a schedule
- Monitoring Slack or GitHub and drafting summaries
- Breaking a large goal into parallel agent tasks inside a Project
- Keeping role memory across days instead of restarting chat context
They are a poor fit if you need enterprise controls today (Enterprise Max is a separate path), if you only use Perplexity on mobile, or if your “workflow” is still “ask whatever comes to mind.” Agents amplify messy instructions. Clean inputs first.
For a sense of how other agent products are rolling out region by region, see our earlier note on whether Meta Muse is available in India yet. And if you are already paying for OpenAI coding agents, our guide to the ChatGPT and Codex shared usage limit helps you compare seats before stacking another Max bill.
Safety basics before you connect Slack or Gmail
Always-on agents with tool access need a short rulebook. Give each teammate the least access that still works. Prefer one repo over “all repos.” Prefer one Slack channel over the whole workspace. Keep approval on for outbound messages and anything that spends money. Review finished work before you treat it as final.
Perplexity describes separate environments and encrypted credentials for sessions. That helps. It does not replace your judgment about which tools and files an agent should see.
FAQ
Is Perplexity Teammates free?
No. The research preview requires an individual Perplexity Max subscription. Free and Pro users must upgrade. Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max are not included by default at launch.
Can I use Perplexity Teammates in India?
Yes, if you can subscribe to Max and use the web app. Pricing may show in dollars on the web or in rupees on regional app stores. Confirm the live price in Settings before you upgrade.
How is Teammates different from a normal Perplexity answer?
A normal query ends when the answer arrives. A teammate keeps a role, remembers context, can run on a schedule, connect tools like Slack or GitHub, and continue work while you are away until it needs your decision.
If you already live inside Perplexity Computer and have one boring weekly job that eats an afternoon, Teammates are the feature to try. If you do not, treat the launch as a preview of where AI work is heading, not a reason to rebuild your stack overnight.
