Perplexity Brings Teammates AI Agents to Mac, Challenging OpenAI's Enterprise Grip

Perplexity has added Teammates to its Mac app for Max subscribers. The release follows launches on the web and iOS earlier this month, giving Mac users a native interface for creating and supervising the company’s persistent AI agents.

Teammates handles recurring responsibilities instead of isolated prompts. A user can assign an agent to triage bugs, monitor metrics, research markets, or manage campaigns. The agent plans tasks, delegates subtasks to additional agents, works in the background, and requests human judgment when needed.

How a Teammate keeps working

Each Teammate appears in the sidebar with a persistent thread containing its instructions, activity, and results. Users can review previous work, revise instructions in plain language, or expand the agent’s scope without starting a new conversation.

The agent continues operating within its assigned role and available permissions. More demanding jobs consume additional credits, particularly when several agents run in parallel, inspect large files or codebases, or execute frequent automations.

Runtime boundaries and handoffs

Teammates runs on Computer runtime, Perplexity’s software layer for opening files, using tools, calling connected services, and executing code. Its plugin system supports services including Slack, GitHub, Linear, and Gmail.

Agents working in the same project can share files, context, and instructions while retaining separate roles. Each receives an isolated environment with independent browsing sessions and local cookies, preventing one agent’s login state from interfering with another’s. Teammates can also delegate work to one another and contact coworkers in Slack when a task requires approval or judgment.

Connector permissions determine which systems and data each agent can reach. Teams assigning production access will still need narrow scopes, approval rules, and audit processes appropriate to the actions an agent can perform.

The Max-only price

The annual Max plan averages about $166.67 per month. During the current promotion, Perplexity says Teammates usage is free. After that allowance ends, agent activity draws from the 10,000 monthly credits bundled with Max. Perplexity lists a conversion rate of 100 credits per dollar, although the number of completed tasks will vary with workload complexity and automation frequency.

The jobs Perplexity is targeting

Perplexity’s examples focus on repeatable roles with observable outputs:

• On-call engineer: monitors Datadog alerts, retrieves logs and traces, and opens a pull request with a rollback plan modeled on recent merged work.
• Ads manager: operates campaigns within spending limits, pauses underperforming ads, and escalates when an ad beats its customer-acquisition-cost target.
• QA engineer: pulls branches, reproduces bugs across desktop and mobile environments, and reports when a fix is ready for release.
• Legal research assistant: compares contracts with standard terms, proposes redlines, and flags unusual clauses for review.
• Storefront manager: monitors store activity and responds to customer reviews.
• Finance and operations: tracks vendor deadlines and follows up on overdue invoices.

What runs on the Mac

Adding Teammates to the native client places agent controls alongside Perplexity’s voice mode and local Mac mode. Perplexity says local Computer can work across approved files and apps, including Notes and Mail, without sending personal data to the cloud.

Local Computer requires a supported Apple-silicon Mac and app version 26.42.0 or later. Perplexity recommends 36 GB of unified memory, and the mode is available to Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers.

The Mac client and local execution remain distinct capabilities. The Teammates announcement does not establish that every agent task, plugin request, or connected-service interaction stays on the device. Users handling sensitive data will need to verify the execution mode and permissions for each workflow.

Perplexity’s individual-user bet

OpenAI and Microsoft primarily package their agent systems for organizational deployments. Perplexity is initially selling Teammates to individual Max subscribers, targeting developers, marketers, researchers, and operators willing to pay for recurring automated work without an enterprise rollout.

The product’s economics depend on measurable results: completed tasks, human review time, incorrect actions, connector access, and credits consumed per finished job. The Mac release makes those agents easier to supervise from the desktop, while their reliability and post-promotion credit use will determine whether the $2,000 annual plan pays for itself.