Perplexity with OpenClaw

Overview

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that runs in your terminal and connects to multiple LLM providers, featuring support for Perplexity as a web search provider for real-time information retrieval. You can configure OpenClaw to use Perplexity’s Agent API models as your agent, and the Perplexity Search API for web search tool calls. This allows you to leverage Perplexity’s powerful models and up-to-date search results directly within OpenClaw’s agent framework.

Get a Perplexity API Key

Navigate to the API Console and generate a new key to use with OpenClaw.

Search API Setup (Use Perplexity as your Web Search Provider)

Use Perplexity Search API as OpenClaw’s web search backend for real-time information retrieval.

Configure the Search Provider

Interactive CLI (Recommended)
Config File (JSON)
Environment Variable

The quickest way — no file editing required:

openclaw configure --section web

Select Perplexity when prompted for a search provider, then paste your API key.

Edit your openclaw.json (run openclaw config file to locate it):

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "perplexity": {
        "config": {
          "webSearch": {
            "apiKey": "pplx-..."
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "provider": "perplexity"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set the environment variable and OpenClaw will auto-detect it:

macOS / Linux
Windows (PowerShell)

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."

setx PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."

Or set PERPLEXITY_API_KEY in ~/.openclaw/.env for daemon installs.

Start using OpenClaw with Perplexity Search

Start OpenClaw and ask anything that requires web search:

openclaw
> What are the latest developments in quantum computing?

OpenClaw will use Perplexity Search API to retrieve structured results and incorporate them into its response.

Search Tool Parameters

When OpenClaw invokes web_search with Perplexity as the provider, these parameters are available:

Parameter	Description
`query`	Search query (required)
`count`	Number of results (1–10, default: 5)
`country`	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., `US`, `DE`)
`language`	ISO 639-1 language code (e.g., `en`, `fr`)
`freshness`	Time filter: `day`, `week`, `month`, or `year`
`date_after`	Results published after this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`date_before`	Results published before this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`domain_filter`	Domain allowlist or denylist (max 20 entries)
`max_tokens`	Total content budget (default: 25,000, max: 1,000,000)
`max_tokens_per_page`	Per-page token limit (default: 2,048)

Domain filters support allowlists (["nature.com", "science.org"]) and denylists (["-reddit.com", "-pinterest.com"]), but you cannot mix both in the same request. See the domain filter guide for details.

Agent API Setup (Use Perplexity as your LLM Provider)

Use Perplexity’s Agent API to run models like Claude Sonnet, GPT-5, Gemini, and Sonar as your OpenClaw coding agent.

Get Your API Key

Generate API Key

Navigate to the API Console and generate a new key.

Install OpenClaw

If you haven’t installed OpenClaw yet:

macOS / Linux
Windows (PowerShell)

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex

For Docker, Podman, Nix, or other installation methods, see the OpenClaw install documentation.

Configure Perplexity as an LLM Provider

Onboarding CLI (Recommended)
Config File (All Models)

The quickest way — no file editing required:

openclaw onboard \
  --auth-choice custom-api-key \
  --custom-base-url "https://api.perplexity.ai/v1" \
  --custom-api-key "pplx-YOUR_KEY_HERE" \
  --custom-model-id "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6" \ 
  --custom-compatibility openai \
  --custom-provider-id perplexity \
  --install-daemon

This registers Perplexity as a provider with one model. To add more models, re-run with a different --custom-model-id or switch to the config file method.You can replace anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6 with any model ID from the Agent API models list to change your default model.

Edit your openclaw.json (run openclaw config file to locate it):

{
"agents": {
  "defaults": {
    "model": {
      "primary": "perplexity/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6" // Set your default model here
    }
  }
},
"models": {
  "mode": "merge",
  "providers": {
    "perplexity": {
      "baseUrl": "https://api.perplexity.ai/v1",
      "apiKey": "pplx-YOUR_KEY_HERE",
      "api": "openai-responses",
      "models": [
        {
          "id": "perplexity/sonar",
          "name": "Sonar (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0.25, "output": 2.50, "cacheRead": 0.0625, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7",
          "name": "Claude Opus 4.7 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 5.00, "output": 25.00, "cacheRead": 0.50, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5",
          "name": "Claude Opus 4.5 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 5.00, "output": 25.00, "cacheRead": 0.50, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
          "name": "Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 3.00, "output": 15.00, "cacheRead": 0.30, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
          "name": "Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 3.00, "output": 15.00, "cacheRead": 0.30, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5",
          "name": "Claude Haiku 4.5 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 1.00, "output": 5.00, "cacheRead": 0.10, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "openai/gpt-5.4",
          "name": "GPT-5.4 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "openai/gpt-5.2",
          "name": "GPT-5.2 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 1.75, "output": 14.00, "cacheRead": 0.175, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "openai/gpt-5.1",
          "name": "GPT-5.1 (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 1.25, "output": 10.00, "cacheRead": 0.125, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "openai/gpt-5-mini",
          "name": "GPT-5 Mini (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0.25, "output": 2.00, "cacheRead": 0.025, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview",
          "name": "Gemini 3.1 Pro (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 2.00, "output": 12.00, "cacheRead": 0.20, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "google/gemini-3-flash-preview",
          "name": "Gemini 3 Flash (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0.50, "output": 3.00, "cacheRead": 0.05, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "google/gemini-2.5-pro",
          "name": "Gemini 2.5 Pro (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 1.25, "output": 10.00, "cacheRead": 0.125, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "google/gemini-2.5-flash",
          "name": "Gemini 2.5 Flash (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0.30, "output": 2.50, "cacheRead": 0.03, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 200000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b",
          "name": "Nemotron 3 Super (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        },
        {
          "id": "xai/grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",
          "name": "Grok 4.1 Fast (Perplexity)",
          "api": "openai-responses",
          "reasoning": false,
          "input": ["text"],
          "cost": { "input": 0.20, "output": 0.50, "cacheRead": 0.05, "cacheWrite": 0 },
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
}

Start using OpenClaw

Launch OpenClaw and your agent will use Perplexity:

openclaw

Agent API Configuration Tips

API transport must be openai-responses

Perplexity’s Agent API uses the OpenAI Responses format. In openclaw.json, set the api field to "openai-responses" at both the provider level and each model entry.Using "openai-completions" will not work.

Base URL must be exactly https://api.perplexity.ai/v1

Do not include /agent or /responses in the URL. OpenClaw appends /responses automatically.Wrong base URLs will cause authentication errors or 404s.

Correct	Wrong
`https://api.perplexity.ai/v1`	`https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/agent`
	`https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/responses`
	`https://api.perplexity.ai` (missing `/v1`)

Model ID format

In the config, model IDs under a provider block omit the provider prefix. The full model reference adds it:

Config model ID: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6
Full model reference: perplexity/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6

For the latest model list and pricing, see the Agent API models page and pricing page.

Links & Resources

Agent API Quickstart

Use third-party models with built-in tools and function calling

Agent API Models

Full list of available models and pricing

Search API Quickstart

Full Perplexity Search API documentation

OpenAI Compatibility

How the Agent API works with OpenAI-compatible clients

OpenClaw Documentation

OpenClaw’s official documentation

API Console

Generate and manage your API keys

Getting Started

Perplexity SDK

Agent API

Search API

Sonar API

Embeddings API

Admin & Management

Resources

Perplexity with OpenClaw

Overview

Get a Perplexity API Key

Search API Setup (Use Perplexity as your Web Search Provider)

Search Tool Parameters

Agent API Setup (Use Perplexity as your LLM Provider)

Generate API Key

Agent API Configuration Tips

Links & Resources

Agent API Quickstart

Agent API Models

Search API Quickstart

OpenAI Compatibility

OpenClaw Documentation

API Console

Getting Started

Perplexity SDK

Agent API

Search API

Sonar API

Embeddings API

Admin & Management

Resources

​Overview

Get a Perplexity API Key

​Search API Setup (Use Perplexity as your Web Search Provider)

​Search Tool Parameters

​Agent API Setup (Use Perplexity as your LLM Provider)

Generate API Key

​Agent API Configuration Tips

​Links & Resources

Agent API Quickstart

Agent API Models

Search API Quickstart

OpenAI Compatibility

OpenClaw Documentation

API Console

Overview

Search API Setup (Use Perplexity as your Web Search Provider)

Search Tool Parameters

Agent API Setup (Use Perplexity as your LLM Provider)

Agent API Configuration Tips

Links & Resources