• Perplexity has added AI image generation to its platform
• The images are produced using the OpenAI model, which was recently released for ChatGPT
• Perplexity also made OpenAI’s o3-mini and xAI’s Grok-3 models available

AI conversational search engine Perplexity can now add some AI visuals to your answer. And if those images look a lot like what ChatGPT would make, well, that’s because they use the same model.

If you’re unconvinced, the left image was generated using Perplexity, while the one on the right was created by ChatGPT, both with the same prompt. It’s like an AI ghostwriter, but for fantasy landscapes with dragons instead of a legal thriller sold in an airport.

Perplexity quietly added the feature to its web platform this week, offering three image generations per day for free users and unlimited generations for Perplexity Pro users. It’s pretty straightforward to use it.

Like with ChatGPT, you just have to ask the AI to “generate an image of” something, or use similar language to set up the prompt.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the model (officially GPT-4.1) chosen from the list of model options, either; Perplexity will automatically use it to produce the visual. That’s likely because none of the other models will make a picture on Perplexity at the moment.

Perplexity Pictures

That wasn’t the only addition to Perplexity’s abilities announced by the company, though. The AI assistant added a couple of other models to its stable.

xAI’s Grok 3 model is now one of the choices for Perplexity to use in answering questions, while OpenAI‘s o4-mini model is now one of the “reasoning” model options.

This all fits with Perplexity’s approach to its AI platform. Rather than trying to build everything from scratch, the company is curating models and weaving them into its platform to streamline access.

It’s a smart play, especially considering how many people may want to try an AI tool, but aren’t willing to commit to just one among the many. Most people just want to ask a smart machine a question, get a clear answer, maybe see a cool picture of a flying whale while they’re at it, and move on with their lives.

The addition of ChatGPT’s image generator is a nice splash of color to the AI search engine. It will likely become especially popular once it joins the voice assistant on the Perplexity mobile app.

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Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He’s since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he’s continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.