Perplexity Computer adds effort routing, skills and hybrid execution

Perplexity Computer added Light, Standard, High and Ultra effort routing on web, GPT-6 Astra for eligible Pro and Max accounts, a Skills Marketplace and local or hybrid execution. Portable Computer now supports selected NVIDIA systems, Apple silicon Macs and Windows PCs using AMD Ryzen AI Max processors; cloud escalation requires approval.

What changed

Why it matters

One agent now spans model routing, reusable third-party instructions and local/cloud execution across three hardware paths. Cost, data movement and skill authority can change even when the task interface stays the same.

What to do

Pin effort and model for benchmark runs, inspect each skill before installation, capture every local-to-cloud handoff, and test that sensitive files and outbound content remain local when cloud escalation is denied on each approved hardware path.

Caveat

Perplexity and hardware partners describe product behavior but provide no independent isolation, routing-quality or cross-platform performance evidence. Platform, memory, plan and data-retention requirements differ across features.