What are Artifacts?

Learn what artifacts are in Perplexity Computer and how to find, edit, share, and manage them.

What is an Artifact?

An artifact is a file or link that Computer creates for you during a task. The answer in your session explains what Computer did; the artifact is the result you open, download, share, and keep working on.

Every artifact appears in the session where Computer made it, and is also saved to your Artifacts page, so you can find it later without scrolling back through old sessions.

Who can access Artifacts

Artifacts are part of Perplexity Computer, which is available on paid plans. Some free accounts also include a limited number of free Computer turns. For plan details, see What is Computer?.

Types of artifacts

• Documents: PDF reports and Word documents (.docx)
• Presentations: PowerPoint decks (.pptx) with charts and speaker notes
• Spreadsheets: Excel workbooks (.xlsx) with formulas, formatting, and multiple sheets
• Images: AI-generated photos, illustrations, and diagrams
• Video and audio: short AI video clips, narration, and other audio
• Charts and visualizations: interactive charts and diagrams shown in the session
• Websites and apps: web pages published to a shareable pplx.app link
• Links: items Computer creates in a connected app, such as a Google Doc

Link artifacts open the item in its own app, because the file lives there rather than in Perplexity.

Ask for an artifact

Say what you want and the format you want it in. For example:

• Turn this research into a 10-slide deck for my team.
• Make a spreadsheet comparing these five laptops on price, weight, and battery life.
• Write this up as a two-page PDF I can send to my landlord.

If you don’t name a format, Computer may answer in the session instead. Follow up with Make that a PDF to get a file.

You can also upload a document, spreadsheet, deck, or PDF and ask Computer to edit, summarize, or reformat it. Computer saves its changes as a new artifact, so your original upload stays unchanged. Your uploads appear on the Uploaded by you tab of the Artifacts page.

Find your artifacts

Open the Artifacts page, then:

• Use Search artifacts to find an artifact by name.
• Switch between the All, Created by you, Uploaded by you, and Shared with you tabs.
• Filter by type, such as Documents, Spreadsheets, or Presentations.

You can also ask Computer directly, for example Find the budget spreadsheet you made me last week.

Edit an artifact

You can change an artifact in two ways.

Edit it in place. Select parts of the artifact and describe each change:

1. Open the artifact and click Edit.
2. Under Selection tool, choose Text to select text, Element to select part of an app or web page, or Area to draw around text or graphics.
3. Select what you want to change and describe the change in plain language, for example make this punchier or swap this chart for a table.
4. Repeat for any other changes. Your edits collect in the Edits panel.
5. Click Submit (for example, Submit 3 edits) to send them to Computer together.

Edit is available for documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, charts, reports, and apps in sessions you started. It isn’t available for images, video, or audio, or on mobile devices. For those, ask in the session instead.

Ask in the session. Say exactly what to change and where, and Computer updates only that part. For example, Shorten slide 3 to three bullets or Add a Q4 column to the second sheet. For a bigger rework, say so, for example Restructure the whole deck around these three themes.

Use versions

Each time Computer revises an artifact, it saves a new version and keeps the earlier ones. Click the version number next to the artifact’s name, for example v3, to open the Select version menu and switch versions. A check mark shows the version you’re viewing.

You can also ask Computer to work from an earlier version, for example Go back to the previous version of the deck and only change the chart.

Download or save to Google Drive

Click Download to save the file. Presentations, documents, and spreadsheets download as editable .pptx, .docx, and .xlsx files, so text, tables, and formulas stay editable in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

To open a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint artifact in Google’s own format, click Download, then choose Save to Drive as Google Doc, Save to Drive as Google Sheet, or Save to Drive as Google Slides.

Saving to Drive requires a connected Google Drive account. If you haven’t connected it yet, Perplexity asks you to sign in to Google first. See Connecting Perplexity with Google Drive.

Some styling, such as custom fonts or complex charts, can change during conversion. Keep the original file if exact formatting matters.

Share an artifact

By default, an artifact follows the access of the session it was created in, so an artifact from a private session is private too. Artifacts in Projects and published websites have their own defaults, described below.

To change who can see an artifact, open its share settings. You can invite specific people, and choose one of these General access options:

• Access is inherited from session: the artifact follows the session’s access. This is the default.
• Only people with access can view: only you and the people you invite can open it.
• Anyone in (your organization’s name) with access can view: anyone in your organization can open it. This option is available on Enterprise plans.
• Anyone with the link can view: anyone with the link can open it.

People you share with can view the artifact. You can also download the file and send it like any other file. To stop sharing, set General access to Only people with access can view.

Artifacts in Projects. Artifacts made in a Project are visible to the Project’s members. To remove access for other members, click Make private on the artifact on the Artifacts page. To make an artifact a lasting part of the Project that members can reuse, save it to Project files. See What are Projects?.

Websites. When Computer builds a website or app, it publishes it to a pplx.app link. Ask Computer to update the site and it republishes the latest version to the same link. Published sites on Consumer accounts are public by default; on Enterprise accounts, they are visible only to your organization by default. See Publishing your website to the web.

On Enterprise plans, your administrator can turn off public sharing for the organization. When it’s off, the public option doesn’t appear, and you can still share with specific people or your organization.

Delete an artifact

From the Artifacts page, open the artifact’s menu and choose to delete it. You can delete a single version from the Select version menu, or delete all versions.

Deleting an artifact permanently removes it. Download anything you want to keep first.

Credits and usage

Computer creates artifacts as part of a task, so they use your included Computer usage or credits like any other task. Larger or more complex artifacts, such as long decks, videos, or many images, generally use more. You can see your balance on your Usage page. See How credits work on Perplexity.

Troubleshooting

Symptom you see	Most likely cause	How to fix it
The preview is blank or won’t load.	The preview didn’t finish loading.	Refresh the page. If it’s still blank, download the file and open it in its usual app, such as Word for a .docx file.
Formatting looks different after you download.	Apps display fonts and layouts differently, especially after conversion to Google formats.	Tell Computer which app you use so it can adjust, for example by using fonts that app supports.
Computer said it made a file, but you can’t find it.	The artifact is in the session or on a different tab of the Artifacts page.	Check the session where it was made, then search the Artifacts page. You can also ask Where’s the file you just made?
Something in the artifact is wrong.	Computer misread the request or a source.	Use Edit or ask in the session, naming what’s wrong and where. For factual claims, ask Computer to show its sources.

Table 1 — Common artifact problems and how to fix them.

If a file still won’t open after you download it, ask Computer to regenerate it. If that doesn’t work, contact us via Help > Contact Support. Include the task link and the steps you’ve already tried.

Frequently asked questions

Can I edit an artifact in Perplexity, or do I need to download it?

You can do either. Use Edit for supported artifact types, or download the file and edit it in your own app.

Does Computer overwrite an artifact when it revises it?

No. Computer saves each revision as a new version, and earlier versions stay available in the Select version menu.

Related articles

• Publishing your website to the web
• Creating assets with Perplexity: Overview
• What are Projects?
• How credits work on Perplexity
• What is Computer?

Need more help?

Contact us via Help > Contact Support. Include the task link if your question is about a specific Computer task.