Anthropic vs Perplexity: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Anthropic reported $65B of revenue in FY2026 and — of net income. Perplexity reported $750M of revenue in FY2026 and — of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Anthropic
- Latest revenue
- $65B (FY2026)
- Net income
- —
- Net margin
- 0.0%
- Revenue growth
- +1197.7% a year, FY2024–FY2026
Perplexity
- Latest revenue
- $750M (FY2026)
- Net income
- —
- Net margin
- 0.0%
- Revenue growth
- +223.3% a year, FY2025–FY2026
Financial summary
Anthropic
Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus, described by Reuters on September 28, 2026, shows 2025 revenue of $4.59 billion against $386 million in 2024, an operating loss of $8.06 billion (from $2.98 billion) and a GAAP net loss of $41.97 billion (from $8.31 billion). About $34 billion of that loss was a non-cash charge tied to convertible financing from Google and Amazon rather than cash burn. Operating expenses reached $12.65 billion, including $7.33 billion of compute and infrastructure, and the company ended 2025 with $20.28 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Growth since then has outpaced the annual accounts: run-rate revenue was $14 billion in February 2026, crossed $47 billion in May, reached about $65 billion in July, and second-quarter revenue of $11.5 billion came with the first positive adjusted operating income. Funding followed the same curve, from a $13 billion Series F at a $183 billion valuation in September 2025 to a $30 billion Series G at $380 billion in February 2026 and a $65 billion Series H at $965 billion in May 2026.
Perplexity
Perplexity is private and does not publish audited financials, so revenue figures are third-party estimates. Sacra estimates annualized revenue of about $232 million at the end of 2025 and $750 million in August 2026. The company's valuation rose from $520 million (January 2024) to $3 billion (June 2024), $9 billion (December 2024), $14 billion and then $18 billion (mid-2025), and $20 billion after a $200 million round in September 2025. Reuters, citing The Information, reported on August 23, 2026 that Nvidia was in talks to invest at a valuation above $30 billion. No such deal had been confirmed as of October 1, 2026. Net income has not been disclosed.
Revenue and profit by year
Anthropic
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $65B | — | 0.0% | +1316.1% | Source |
| FY2025 | $4.6B | -$42B | -914.4% | +1089.1% | Source |
| FY2024 | $386M | -$8.3B | -2152.8% | — | Source |
Perplexity
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $750M | — | 0.0% | +223.3% | Source |
| FY2025 | $232M | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Anthropic
- Developer and enterprise API consumption
Token-billed access to the Claude models through the Claude Developer Platform, with prompt caching priced at $0.20 per million tokens on Claude Opus 5.5 to make long agent loops affordable. Anthropic does not publish a segment split; the two largest customers each accounted for about 12 percent of 2025 revenue.
- Agent products
Claude Code and Cowork are sold to individuals, teams and enterprises. Claude Code passed $1 billion of run-rate revenue in December 2025 and $2.5 billion by February 2026, when enterprises accounted for more than half of its revenue.
- Seat subscriptions
Claude Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans for individuals and organizations, including HIPAA-eligible enterprise deployments since January 2026.
- Cloud marketplace resale
Claude is sold through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI and Microsoft Azure Foundry, which lets customers spend committed cloud budget on Claude.
Perplexity
- Consumer subscriptions (Pro, Max)
Not disclosed
Monthly and annual plans for higher limits, frontier models and Comet features.
- Enterprise seats (Enterprise Pro, Enterprise Max)
Not disclosed
Per-seat business plans with security controls and internal-file search.
- Usage-based: Sonar API and Computer
Not disclosed
Developer API fees, plus agent usage charges added in 2026.
Business model and strategy
Anthropic
How it makes money
Anthropic charges for Claude in four ways. Developers and enterprises pay per million tokens on the Claude API, where cache reads cost far less than fresh input ($0.20 per million against $4 on Claude Opus 5.5). Individuals and teams pay subscriptions across Claude Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans.
Growth strategy
Growth runs through three channels. First, agent products: Claude Code went from internal experiment to general availability in May 2025 and over $2.5 billion of run-rate revenue by February 2026, and Cowork extended the same engine to non-technical work in January 2026. Second, cloud co-selling, with Claude the only frontier model on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI and Microsoft Azure Foundry.
Competitive advantage
Anthropic leads on agentic coding and long-horizon tasks. Claude Opus 5.5, released September 22, 2026, tops Anthropic's published benchmark table on SWE-bench Pro (89.9 percent) and Terminal-Bench 4.0 (66.4 percent) while costing $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, roughly 40 percent less to run than Opus 5.
Perplexity
How it makes money
Perplexity makes money mainly from subscriptions. The free tier is limited. Pro ($20 a month) and Max (a higher tier that includes the Comet browser's advanced features) add more queries and access to frontier models. Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max are sold per seat to companies and add security controls and search over internal files. Developers pay by usage for the Sonar API.
Growth strategy
Perplexity is growing on three fronts: (1) agent products such as Comet and Computer that carry usage-based pricing; (2) distribution through carriers, PC makers and bundles, including the HP preload announced September 15, 2026; and (3) enterprise seats with internal-file search. It is also securing more compute and model access, through the January 2026 Microsoft Azure agreement and the Crusoe GB300 capacity deal.
Competitive advantage
Perplexity's edge is focus and speed of shipping. Every answer shows its sources, which makes results easy to check. Because it is model-agnostic, it can route queries to its own Sonar models or to OpenAI, Anthropic and other providers; a three-year, roughly $750 million Azure agreement with Microsoft signed in January 2026 widened that access (Sacra). Google has a large search-ad business to protect.
Questions about Anthropic vs Perplexity
Which company has higher revenue — Anthropic PBC or Perplexity AI, Inc.?
Anthropic PBC reported $65.0B (FY2026), while Perplexity AI, Inc. reported $750.0M (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Anthropic PBC is the larger business, with Perplexity AI, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
Which is more financially efficient — Anthropic PBC or Perplexity AI, Inc.?
Anthropic PBC generates $26.00M / employee in revenue per employee, while Perplexity AI, Inc. generates $577k / employee. Anthropic PBC shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Anthropic PBC and Perplexity AI, Inc. make money?
Anthropic PBC and Perplexity AI, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Anthropic PBC: Anthropic charges for Claude in four ways. Perplexity AI, Inc.: Perplexity makes money mainly from subscriptions.
Is Anthropic PBC bigger than Perplexity AI, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Anthropic PBC ($65.0B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Perplexity AI, Inc. ($750.0M (FY2026)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Anthropic vs Perplexity overview