The Perplexity MCP is Perplexity's official server. It gives Claude web search, written answers with sources, reasoning and a deep research mode, all through the Perplexity API.
Watch out
- It needs a Perplexity API key with credits, separate from a Perplexity Pro subscription.
- Deep research calls cost more and can take minutes. Raise
PERPLEXITY_TIMEOUT_MSlocally if they time out.
- Keep your API key out of shared project configs.
Install
Get an API key in the Perplexity API settings, then:
Terminal
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claude mcp add --transport http perplexity https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
To run it locally:
claude mcp add perplexity --env PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your_key_here" -- npx -y @perplexity-ai/mcp-server. The same npx command works in Codex and Cursor. Claude Code users can also install it as a plugin with /plugin marketplace add perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol.More in Top MCP servers for web data.