Today, Perplexity announced a local-first mode for Computer where the model and agent work entirely on your Mac whether you’re online or not, sending data to the cloud only with the user’s approval. The new local mode complements Hybrid Compute, which was introduced last month and uses a combination of local models and cloud-based frontier models.
The result is that Perplexity customers now have a choice when they start up the company’s Mac app. They can choose to start agentic workflows in the cloud with frontier models, or they can flip things around and start locally, turning to cloud-based models as needed. The local model uses Qwen 3.6 or PPLX Pro, a post-trained version of Qwen.
The benefit of starting locally in a securely sandboxed code- and tool-use environment is twofold. First, data stays on your Mac, ensuring privacy. Second, Perplexity subscribers are able to conserve credits, making their subscriptions go further. At the same time, cloud-based models remain available with the user’s permission as needed and to perform tasks like browsing the web and accessing online apps.
Local Computer is available to Perplexity Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers now, and Perplexity recommends using Apple silicon Macs with at least 36GB of memory.
No mês passado, falamos sobre o Hybrid Compute, uma ferramenta do app da Perplexity que permite dividir uma tarefa entre um modelo de ponta baseado na nuvem e um LLM 1Large language models, ou grandes modelos de linguagem. executado no Mac.
Hoje, a companhia de inteligência artificial anunciou uma outra novidade nessa linha: um modo totalmente local que elimina qualquer dependência do Computer de modelos na nuvem e possibilita sessões de trabalho 100% offline.
Perplexity Computer can now run fully local on your Mac.
Work with your native Mac apps and local files, and run tasks without sending sensitive data to the cloud. The model and the agent both run on your Mac.
Quando ativado, esse modo processa localmente, no seu computador, tanto o modelo de IA quanto o agente, o que inclui tarefas como planejamento, raciocínio e processamento de arquivos (que só são enviados para a nuvem com a devida permissão, caso o usuário opte por isso).
Caso o usuário conceda os acessos necessários, o Perplexity Computer pode trabalhar com arquivos locais e apps suportados no Mac, como o Notas (Notes), o Mensagens (Messages), o Mail e o Numbers.
Segundo a Perplexity, esse novo modo está disponível para assinantes dos planos Pro, Max e Enterprise, os quais podem baixar e configurar os modelos Qwen 3.6 e PPLX Pro. Para isso, porém, é necessário ter um Mac com Apple Silicon e pelo menos 36GB de memória unificada.
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Perplexity has launched Hybrid Compute for its Computer agent on Apple Silicon Macs, a system that splits a single task between frontier models in the cloud and compact models running locally so confidential files and personal data never have to leave the machine.
The idea is simple and, if it holds up in daily use, important: Computer still starts work in the cloud, where large models handle research, planning, and long-horizon reasoning. When a local classifier spots sensitive information — names, emails, account numbers, privileged files — the user is prompted to keep that slice of the job on the Mac, mask the details, or send it to the cloud anyway. Cloud and local pieces stay in the same workflow. The user does not have to restart the task or shuttle files between tools.
At launch, local options include Gemma 4 E4B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B, and a Perplexity post-trained Qwen variant. Users pick the cloud orchestrator; Perplexity selects helper frontier models. Hybrid Compute is available today to Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers in the Perplexity Mac app on Apple silicon running macOS 15 or later, with 24GB of unified memory as the minimum and 32GB recommended. Setup is a one-click model download rather than a custom local-runtime stack.
The Mac does not have to be the device that starts the job. A prompt from iPhone or iPad can still kick off a session; if the Mac is on and running Perplexity, sensitive steps can execute there against local files and apps. That makes a always-on Mac mini a plausible private compute node for people who work from a phone most of the day.
Perplexity has been building toward this split for months. In June it described hybrid agentic inference as a way to optimize for accuracy, privacy, and token cost at once: keep financial records, health information, and personal files local; send only the work that truly needs a frontier model to the server. Portable Computer, a more local-first variant, already existed for users who want most of the stack on device and only escalate with permission. Hybrid Compute approaches the same problem from the other direction — cloud-first orchestration with an on-device privacy gate.
That gate is the linchpin. An on-device PII classifier, which Perplexity says it has open-sourced and trained with its Secure Intelligence Institute, inspects content before anything is transmitted. Credentials, payment numbers, and government IDs get the strictest treatment. For enterprises, admins can set organization-wide rules for what must stay local, what may be masked, and what requires approval, plus audit when data leaves a device. That is the pitch for law, finance, healthcare, and other regulated shops that want agentic tools without dumping client records into someone else’s cluster.
Competitors are chasing the same mix of on-device privacy and cloud intelligence. Perplexity’s claim is that it can start a job in the cloud, peel off the confidential pieces mid-task, and finish without losing context. For Mac users sitting on 24GB-plus Apple silicon — and for the new M5/M6 machines Apple just put on the table — that is now a shipping product rather than a Computex slide.
MacDailyNews Take: The use cases Perplexity and early reviewers walk through are familiar: an attorney updating a brief with client files that stay on the Mac while case-law research runs in the cloud; an analyst rebuilding a confidential model against public comps; a small-business owner starting pricing research from a phone while private price lists never leave the desktop. In each case the agent is only as useful as the data it can touch. Hybrid Compute is an attempt to let it touch private data without treating the cloud as the default home for that data.
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Perplexity has announced hybrid compute for Personal Computer on Apple silicon Macs. Personal Computer already combined cloud-based Computer tasks with access to local files and apps, but its AI processing was primarily cloud-based. Recently, Perplexity also introduced Portable Computer, a local-first version of Computer that can escalate work to the cloud with a user’s permission.
Hybrid compute approaches the problem from a different direction. Tasks start in the cloud but if a new local classifier detects potentially sensitive information, the user is alerted and asked whether they want to route it to a local model, although users also have the option to let the flagged data be used by a frontier cloud-based model. Gemma E4B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B, and a Perplexity post-trained version of Qwen3.6 35B are available at launch for that local work, with more models to come in the future.
Tasks that don’t require sensitive information are handled in the cloud by frontier models that also orchestrate the cloud and local tasks. Users select the cloud orchestrator and Perplexity chooses the helper frontier models used.
Another key feature is that hybrid compute works with tasks begun from an iPhone or iPad, too. Those devices could already kick off a session, but now they can also run tasks that use sensitive information locally if your Mac is turned on and running Perplexity.
Yesterday, I got a demo of the feature that walked through three scenarios:
an attorney researching a legal brief, with sensitive client data on their Mac, allowing them to update it locally,
an analyst using web-based data to update a confidential slide deck for a presentation about a company’s financials, and
a small business owner kicking off pricing research from her iPhone that was combined with private pricing data for her business that never left her Mac.
I haven’t tried hybrid compute myself yet, but if it works as advertised, it’s a big step forward for Perplexity, and one that a lot of its competitors are also chasing. AI agents are only as good as the tools and data to which they have access. Tool calling has been a big focus over the last year and more, but data privacy is an equally important issue that needs to be solved before more companies, especially those in regulated industries, adopt agentic tools like Personal Computer. It’s good to see Perplexity tackling this head-on.
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Numa semana histórica para o setor da inteligência artificial, a OpenAI submeteu o seu prospeto confidencial à SEC dias depois da Anthropic ter feito o mesmo. A SpaceX prepara-se para começar a negociar na bolsa ainda esta semana. E a Perplexity, imperturbável, mantém o seu plano para 2028.
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