Perplexity Install & Auth

Overview

Set up Perplexity Sonar API access using the OpenAI-compatible chat completions endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai. Perplexity does not have a custom SDK -- you use the standard OpenAI client library pointed at Perplexity's base URL.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+
Perplexity account at perplexity.ai
API key from perplexity.ai/settings/api

Instructions

Step 1: Install OpenAI Client Library

set -euo pipefail
# Node.js / TypeScript
npm install openai

# Python
pip install openai

There is no @perplexity/sdk package. Perplexity uses the OpenAI wire format, so you use the official openai package with a custom baseURL.

Step 2: Configure API Key

# Set environment variable
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Or create .env file (add .env to .gitignore)
echo 'PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' >> .env

API keys start with pplx- and are generated at perplexity.ai/settings/api. You must add credits to your account before making API calls.

Step 3: Verify Connection (TypeScript)

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://api.perplexity.ai",
});

async function verify() {
  const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
    model: "sonar",
    messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is 2+2?" }],
    max_tokens: 50,
  });
  console.log("Connected:", response.choices[0].message.content);
  console.log("Model:", response.model);
  console.log("Tokens used:", response.usage?.total_tokens);
}

verify().catch(console.error);

Step 4: Verify Connection (Python)

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["PERPLEXITY_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.perplexity.ai",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="sonar",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is 2+2?"}],
    max_tokens=50,
)
print("Connected:", response.choices[0].message.content)
print("Model:", response.model)
print("Tokens:", response.usage.total_tokens)

Available Models

Model	Use Case	Input $/M tokens	Output $/M tokens
`sonar`	Fast search, simple queries	$1	$1
`sonar-pro`	Deep research, more citations	$3	$15
`sonar-reasoning-pro`	Chain-of-thought with search	$3	$15
`sonar-deep-research`	Multi-step research synthesis	$2	$8

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
`401 Unauthorized`	Invalid or missing API key	Verify key starts with `pplx-` and has credits
`403 Forbidden`	Key lacks model access	Check key permissions at perplexity.ai/settings
`Module not found: openai`	SDK not installed	Run `npm install openai` or `pip install openai`
`Connection refused`	Wrong base URL	Ensure `baseURL` is `https://api.perplexity.ai`

Output

OpenAI client configured with Perplexity base URL
Successful API response confirming connection
Token usage confirming billing is active

Examples

Configure a least-privilege local client

Create a short-lived development API key with only the models required by the sample, save it in an ignored environment file, and initialize the compatible client with the documented base URL. Verify access with a small synthetic request and inspect only the status and usage summary. Never hardcode the key in source, test fixtures, or logs; rotate or revoke it when development access is no longer needed.

Resources

Next Steps

After successful auth, proceed to perplexity-hello-world for your first search query.