Perplexity's in-house Photon engine now handles all retrieval, replacing open-source search

perplexity_ai · x · 2026-09-25

Perplexity says its in-house Photon service now handles all retrieval and ranking across its products, replacing the open-source engine it previously used.

Photon stores the index in compact formats so each query reads and decodes only what it needs; disk reads are batched and run asynchronously to avoid blocking queries.

Related event: Perplexity Launches Fast Search, Powered by Its In-House Photon Engine(6 posts)→

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