Both Meta AI and Perplexity AI have emerged as prominent chatbots, each offering unique features and capabilities. This past week Perplexity AI submitted a bid to merge with TikTok’s U.S. operations. This move underscores Perplexity AI's ambition to strengthen its position in the social media landscape alongside industry leaders like Meta.
I couldn’t help but go head-to-head with Perplexity AI and Meta AI to determine which AI assistant excels in various tasks. Here’s a breakdown of their performances when I tested both using seven distinct prompts.
1. General knowledge
Prompt: "Explain the theory of relativity in simple terms."
Meta AI provided a concise and easy-to-understand explanation, effectively breaking down complex concepts into different categories and even including an analogy. It also offered a summary with key takeaways.
Perplexity AI delivered a similar response offering a comprehensive overview suitable for users seeking in-depth information. However, it was slightly less detailed, and the response was not as organized.
Winner: Meta AI won this round for its detailed, easy-to-read response including key takeaways ensuring users fully understand the concept and explanation.
2. Current events
Prompt: "Summarize the latest developments in renewable energy technologies as of January 2025."
Meta AI offered a solid overview of information, detailing critical data in easy-to-read bullet points. It followed up the summary with key conferences and events, that, although important, are not something the average is likely to attend.
Perplexity AI delivered a comprehensive summary of recent advancements, demonstrating its capability to integrate current information effectively in real-time. It included stats and pertinent data that answered the prompt thoroughly without excess.
Winner: Perplexity AI. Its real-time data integration ensures users receive the most recent information.
3. Creative writing
Prompt: "Compose a short story about a time traveler visiting ancient civilizations."
Meta AI crafted an engaging narrative with vivid descriptions, dividing up the story into Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, showcasing the AI’s creative writing prowess.
Perplexity AI generated a coherent story with imaginative flair without breaking up the story into categories. Instead, the story naturally flowed, taking the reader along for the journey without breaks.
Winner: Perplexity AI wins again for its ability to produce captivating and imaginative content that stands out with cohesion and creative flair.
4. Coding assistance
Prompt: "Provide a Python script to scrape the first 10 headlines from a news website and save them in a CSV file."
Meta AI supplied a script, and explanation as well as important reminders for some essential error-handling components.
Perplexity AI delivered a well-structured and functional script, complete with explanations and best practices.
Winner: Perplexity AI. Both models offered detailed and practical coding assistance, which is beneficial for developers. But Perplexity AI went above and beyond by explaining how and why the script works in extensive detail.
5. Language translation
Prompt: "Translate the following English paragraph into Spanish: 'Artificial intelligence is transforming various industries by automating tasks and providing data-driven insights.'"
Meta AI provided an accurate and fluent translation, offering both a causal and formal way to say the sentence while maintaining the original meaning.
Perplexity AI also delivered a correct translation but included “related” sentences that were written in Spanish. Non-native speakers may not have understood how those sentences were related, overcomplicating the original prompt.
Winner: Meta AI wins for the straightforward approach and offers a user-friendly way to say then sentence according to the situation.
6. Mathematical problem solving
Prompt: "Solve this problem step by step: A train leaves Station A at 8:00 AM traveling at 60 mph. Another train leaves Station B at 9:00 AM traveling at 90 mph on the same track toward Station A, which is 300 miles away. When do the trains meet?"
Meta AI presented a step-by-step solution, arriving at the correct answer with clear explanations.
Perplexity AI also solved the problem accurately while including additional information in a conversational way to help me understand how it arrived at the answer. This was informative, relevant, and appreciated.
Winner: Perplexity AI's focused problem-solving with a conversational approach was helpful and efficient.
7. Personalized recommendation
Prompt: "Suggest a vacation destination for a family with young children who enjoy outdoor activities and cultural experiences."
Meta AI recommended Costa Rica as a family-friendly destination, highlighting outdoor and cultural attractions, and provided practical travel tips. It also included a potential budget and travel tips.
Perplexity AI also suggested Costa Rica, which helped in the side-by-side comparison. However, even with a potential daily itinerary, it lacked the detail of Meta AI, making it less helpful for planning purposes.
Winner: Meta AI. Its comprehensive recommendations cater well to family travel needs.
Overall winner: Perplexity AI
Both Meta AI and Perplexity AI demonstrate impressive capabilities across various tasks. Yet, Perplexity AI stands out in providing detailed explanations and up-to-date information, particularly beneficial for research-oriented tasks. While I had a feeling Perplexity would win for coding and mathematics, I was surprised by its ability to handle the creative writing task with ease.
Both chatbots are a great alternative to ChatGPT, and both are free. Both have their downsides. For example, Meta AI users must login to their Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook account to use the AI. When attempting queries like this, I prefer to use the desktop version as the mobile version of Meta AI can get somewhat crowded.
Conversely, Perplexity AI does not require an account, but the advertisements within the frame may be off-putting for some. However, I find that they are hardly noticeable because they are fairly small.
The choice between Meta AI and Perplexity aI ultimately depends on individual preferences and specific use cases, but the evidence is clear — Perplexity AI handles most tasks with ease.
More from Tom's Guide
- I tested ChatGPT Plus vs Gemini Advanced with 7 prompts — here’s the winner
- OpenAI launches ‘Operator’ – everything about the new agent that can use a computer for you
- OpenAI’s ‘o3-mini’ is free for all users — what you need to know
