We’ve all been there—racing against a tight deadline, searching for that one piece of data to support your project.
But instead of quick answers, your search engine spits out endless pages of irrelevant results. Or maybe you’re buried under a mountain of information within your organization, struggling to find what you actually need.
The average knowledge worker spends 8.2 hours each week looking for, recreating, and duplicating information and expertise. While these activities are essential, they clearly need to be streamlined so they don’t take up 20 percent of the workweek.
That’s a whole day wasted every week!
Deep learning-based LLMs, with advanced semantic understanding, are here to change all of that! 🚀
This blog post will compare two powerful tools, Glean vs. Perplexity AI, which aim to transform how you manage knowledge and conduct enterprise AI searches.
Glean vs. Perplexity AI at a Glance
| Feature | Glean | Perplexity | Bonus: ✨ |
| Purpose | Internal enterprise search and knowledge management | External research and knowledge synthesis | Everything app for work that combines project management, knowledge management, and chat |
| Unified search | Connects internal databases, cloud storage, and communication platforms | Combines internal company data with external web sources | Unified search across workspace, connected third-party apps, as well as web search |
| Personalization | Tailors search results based on user role, projects, and organizational workflows | No deep personalization for individual enterprise users | Fully customizable based on user roles, permissions and more |
| Permissions | Displays only information users are authorized to access | No built-in access restriction for internal knowledge | Ability to set granular-level permissions for each role |
| Real-time information | Limited to internal, pre-existing knowledge | Provides up-to-date external information with citations | Up-to-date information via web search |
| AI-powered summaries | Not available | Delivers AI-generated summaries with source citations | Available across the workspace: Docs, Chat, Tasks, and more |
| Deep research | Not available | Automates expert-level analysis and generates detailed reports | Available. Can generate insights from data instantly |
| Pricing | Unified search across workspace, connected third-party apps as well as web search | Free (Standard), $20/month per user (Pro), Enterprise (Contact for pricing) | Free plan available Paid plans start at $7 |
| Best for | Internal knowledge retrieval and enterprise collaboration | External information retrieval and quick research with real-time updates | Integrating search, project management, and knowledge management under a single AI-powered workspace |
| Workflow integration | Limited | No direct workflow integration | Integrates with 1000+ apps to facilitate seamless workflows |
What Is Glean?
Glean is an AI-powered enterprise search and knowledge management platform designed to help employees quickly find the information they need, no matter where it is stored.
It is a central hub for all your company’s internal databases, connecting to various applications and repositories to provide a unified search experience.
Glean features
Glean offers powerful features that work together to create a seamless knowledge experience, streamline knowledge access, and boost productivity.
Feature #1 Unified search
Glean connects to all your company’s internal data sources, including cloud storage, internal wikis, and communication platforms. Using natural language queries, you can search across everything from a single interface, eliminating the need to hunt through multiple applications.
No more switching between tabs or the frustration of guessing where that crucial document could be stored. Glean brings it all together, saving you precious time and effort.
Feature #2 Personalized results
Glean’s AI learns your work habits and information needs, so the search results are customized based on your role, projects, and enterprise interactions.
This personalization ensures you receive the most pertinent information for your work, eliminating the frustration of wading through generic data sources. Instead of sifting through pages of irrelevant information, you see the most relevant results first.
Feature #3 Permissions-aware access
Glean respects existing data permissions, ensuring that users only see the information they are authorized to access.
This feature enhances security and builds trust within the enterprise. You can confidently search for sensitive company information without worrying about unauthorized exposure, making knowledge management more secure and efficient.
By integrating these advanced features into daily workflows, Glean transforms how teams interact with information, making search and knowledge management a seamless part of their operations.
Glean pricing
(Glean tailors its pricing based on an organization’s size, specific enterprise search requirements, and the features needed)
📮 Insight: 30% of our respondents rely on AI tools for research and information gathering.
But is there an AI that helps you find that one lost file at work or that critical Slack thread you forgot to save? Yes!
’s AI-powered Connected Search can instantly search across all your workspace content, including integrated third-party apps, pulling up insights, resources, and answers. With ’s advanced search, you can save up to 5 hours in a week!
What Is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that speeds up research and makes it more efficient by cutting through the clutter of traditional search results.
Its answer engine goes beyond simply listing links. It synthesizes information from diverse sources to comprehensively understand the topic and the source URLs.
Perplexity features
Perplexity offers features and benefits that enhance user experience by providing clear, accurate, and contextually relevant information. Let’s explore some of the key features that set Perplexity apart.
Feature #1: Internal knowledge search
Perplexity’s internal knowledge search feature allows users to seamlessly access the enterprise’s internal work messages, documents, and external data sources in one unified search.
This capability is particularly beneficial for organizations, as it streamlines research processes and enhances decision-making by simultaneously providing comprehensive insights from multiple sources.
Feature #2: Direct and updated answers with source citations
Perplexity can use different large language models to answer your questions and cite sources directly. This allows you to grasp the key information and verify its accuracy quickly. No more digging through multiple websites to find the answer you need.
It delivers information in a natural, conversational format that feels more like an engaging dialogue than a standard search result. This approach allows users to ask follow-up questions and explore topics more deeply without losing context.
Moreover, you get the answer upfront, backed by evidence, and based on real-time updates. Perplexity ensures that users receive the most current information.
Feature #3 Automated expert-level analysis
Deep Research, a recently introduced feature, automates expert-level analysis, delivering detailed responses that typically require hours of manual research.
The tool performs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources, and utilizes advanced AI algorithms to ensure the information is detailed and contextually enriched.
Deep Research generates reports in under three minutes, which can be exported as PDFs or Perplexity Pages for easy sharing.
Perplexity pricing
- Standard: Free
- Pro: $20/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
👀 Did You Know? Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a technique that allows AI models to retrieve relevant information from external sources before generating responses. This means that when you ask a question, the AI first looks up the most pertinent data from a specific set of documents or databases. It then combines this retrieved information with existing knowledge to provide a more accurate and contextually relevant answer.
For example, in a knowledge management scenario, picture a company employee asking an AI tool, “What are our current vacation policies?” Instead of relying solely on outdated training data, the AI uses RAG to pull the latest vacation policy document from the company’s internal database. This ensures the employee receives the most accurate and up-to-date information without searching through multiple files.
Glean vs. Perplexity: Features Compared
In the ongoing comparison of Glean and Perplexity, while each has its strengths, certain aspects may make one more suitable depending on specific user needs.
Let’s look at an in-depth feature-by-feature comparison between Glean and Perplexity
Feature #1: Unified search
Both Glean and Perplexity offer unified search but cater to different needs.
- Glean connects to internal enterprise databases, cloud storage, and communication platforms, allowing employees to search multiple repositories with a single query
- Perplexity merges internal company data with external web sources, delivering a broader search capability with up-to-date internet-based insights
🏆 Winner: Since they serve distinct purposes—Glean for internal enterprise search and Perplexity for broader knowledge retrieval—this feature ends in a tie.
Feature #2: Personalized and direct answers
Glean’s AI-driven personalization tailors search results based on an employee’s role, past searches, and organizational workflows.
- This ensures users of Glean receive highly relevant information, eliminating the need to sift through unrelated data
- While excellent at answering questions, Perplexity lacks deep personalization for individual enterprise users
🏆 Winner: For organizations needing context-aware internal knowledge retrieval, Glean is the clear winner.
Feature #3: Permissions/deep research
Perplexity provides instant LLM-generated answers with real-time citations, making it highly effective for external research and deep analysis.
- Perplexity synthesizes data from multiple sources, delivers concise summaries, and allows users to ask follow-up questions in a natural language format
- While strong in document retrieval, Glean does not generate AI-driven summaries or provide real-time, sourced insights
🏆 Winner: Perplexity is the undisputed winner for quick, AI-powered knowledge synthesis.
Verdict: Overall, Glean is ideal for structured enterprise knowledge retrieval, while Perplexity is the go-to tool for research-based AI search.
Glean Vs. Perplexity on Reddit
We dived into Reddit to see what users say about Glean vs. Perplexity AI for search and knowledge management. Many users appreciate Glean’s focus on internal company knowledge:
Other Reddit users point out Perplexity’s strength in external research and information synthesis:
Some users also commented on the different use cases:
Overall, Glean is a better fit for internal knowledge management within a company, while Perplexity is more sophisticated in search functionality and is the go-to tool of choice for general research and exploring external information.
🧠 Fun Fact: Your search data can shape AI models! The more you use AI-powered search, the more it learns from you, tailoring results to your interests, habits, and even how you phrase questions!
Meet — The Best Alternative to Glean vs. Perplexity
Glean and Perplexity offer valuable solutions for specific search and knowledge challenges.
However, neither tool provides the all-in-one productivity and workflow integration of , the everything app for work, which combines AI-powered search with task management, automation, and real-time collaboration.
’s One Up #1: The everything AI for work
Brain brings AI directly into your workflow, making it easier to find what you need, fast. Its AI-powered search helps teams quickly locate documents, tasks, and notes across the workspace. All you need to do is “Ask AI” literally.
Imagine a marketing team needing past campaign reports or client feedback—instead of digging through endless folders, they can pull them up instantly. Plus, with AI-based documentation features such as the AI Notetaker, client meetings can be automatically transcribed, key points summarized, and tasks created—all within . This AI productivity tool saves hours of manual work and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
That’s not it. With AI, you get to choose which AI model you want to work with. Whether you want to chat with GPT-4o, o1, and o3-mini directly in —all included in your AI add-on. New models are constantly added, like Claude 3.7, keeping cutting-edge AI at your fingertips.
This streamlines the research process and ensures everyone is on the same page. Glean and Perplexity might help you find relevant information, but they don’t offer this workflow integration and automation level.
We’re not even done yet. takes it up to the next level with web search right from your workspace. Yep, no more Google searches from endless windows! Here’s what you get:
✓ Instant web access: Toggle web search on and off right from the AI window
✓ Smarter insights: Pull real-time info from the internet, no app-switching
✓ Effortless power: Put AI to work by telling it to create tasks, spin up Docs, and/or share insights in Chat
💡 Pro Tip: Keep your knowledge base current using AI-generated document summaries and setting up periodic review reminders.
’s One Up #2: Connected Search & integrated knowledge management
’s Connected Search and AI-powered knowledge management features create a unified ecosystem for accessing and utilizing information, surpassing both Glean and Perplexity in practical application.
It acts like a central nervous system for your information. Instead of hopping between different apps like Google Drive for documents, Slack for conversations, and for tasks, you can simply use ’s search bar. It intelligently reaches out to all your connected work tools, sifting through the data and bringing relevant results right to you within . This unified approach eliminates the frustration of scattered information, allowing you to quickly locate what you need without losing your focus or wasting precious time switching contexts.
This connected AI search engine allows the new team members to find what they need quickly. At the same time, the integrated knowledge management features ensure that information is kept up-to-date and readily accessible.
One Up #3: Project management, automation, and collaborative documents
’s project management, automation, and collaborative document features combine to create a dynamic and interconnected knowledge ecosystem.
While Glean and Perplexity focus primarily on finding and accessing information, empowers teams to create, organize, and utilize knowledge within the context of their projects and workflows.
Scenario: Your team is working on a complex project with multiple phases. To start with, they can use Docs to create a knowledge base and SOPs, linking relevant documents directly to project tasks. If someone has a question about a particular task, they can quickly access all the related information without searching through different platforms.
Once the project is in motion, ’s AI-powered project management tools empower teams to collaborate, organize tasks, track progress, and manage resources efficiently via Tasks and subtasks, each complete with assignees, due dates, and dependencies. The ‘everything app for work’ philosophy facilitates easy collaboration, so they can move faster, work smarter, and save time.
’s AI-powered AI agents and Automations—triggered by plain English commands—add another layer of efficiency. For example, AI Agents can automatically assign collaborative team tasks based on document content or update project statuses based on the completion of team actions.
For instance, a project manager searching for a project status report can instantly access the document and then use built-in AI-powered workflow automation features to trigger notifications to team members for review. This level of automation reduces manual effort and ensures that knowledge is actively managed and acted upon.
Glean and Perplexity might help you find external resources or specific internal files; connects your internal knowledge directly to the workflow, making it actionable and readily available within the context of your projects.
One Up #4: Extensive template library tailored to knowledge needs
The Knowledge Base Template streamlines search and knowledge management by providing a structured, centralized repository for critical information.
Let’s see how this template would help in a typical search and knowledge management scenario:
A marketing agency struggles with scattered documentation—brand guidelines, client briefs, and SOPs exist across emails, chats, and personal folders.
Or, a new team member needs to find the latest SEO strategy document but spends 30 minutes searching across platforms.
Here’s how ’s Knowledge Base Template solves this:
- Centralized repository: All knowledge—FAQs, workflows, best practices—resides in one location, eliminating redundant searches
- Advanced search and tagging: Instead of sifting through files, users type ‘SEO strategy’ in ’s search bar and instantly access the most recent document
- Real-time collaboration and updates: The SEO lead edits the strategy document directly in , ensuring the team always references the latest version—no outdated PDFs floating around
- Categorization and customization: Sections like Client Campaigns, Internal Guidelines, and Resources allow users to browse by topic, reducing search friction
- Integration with workflows: The SEO strategy links to a task list and project timeline, enabling direct execution without switching tools
- Scalability & cost efficiency: As the agency grows, the knowledge base expands dynamically, supporting more team members without extra cost
This template makes knowledge searchable, accessible, and actionable, reducing wasted time and ensuring teams always work with updated, accurate, and complete information.
The Future of Search and Knowledge Management
While Glean and Perplexity AI offer impressive search and knowledge management capabilities, they remain limited to single-purpose tools. Glean focuses on enterprise search, while Perplexity excels at AI-powered answers, but neither provides an all-in-one workspace for managing tasks, docs, and collaboration.
Businesses need more than search—they need a connected ecosystem for productivity. This is where stands apart.
Unlike Glean or Perplexity, combines a knowledge management system with project execution, task tracking, and AI-powered insights in one unified platform. With built-in docs, wikis, and seamless integrations, teams don’t just find information—they act on it instantly.
If you’re looking for more than just enterprise AI search here, it’s time to upgrade to an actual everything app. lets you organize, collaborate, and manage knowledge in a way that no standalone tool can match. Sign up for free today!
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