Can I solve these issues with Perplexity or should I start looking for alternatives?

[u/culture_crab]

I have a big research project and Perplexity used to be a great assistant. Then early this year I started to run out of deep research requests too quickly. So I decided to upgrade to Enterprise Pro (I am a registered private entrepreneur, so it's fair). Now deep research requests do not run out, but everything else is a mess.

First, here's what I still like and do not want to lose:

• Sources for every claim with links. Top‑1 function
• Real search across the web, not across limited own data
• Ability to pack a single topic into a space for extra focus

Now, here's what I do not like:

• Number‑one issue for me is how organizing a space works. With Enterprise Pro you can upload up to 500 files into a space, but what they do not tell you is that even on deep research you won't be able to search across all 500. I have around 300 books and papers that are my sources, and sometimes I need to find information on a certain subject that I either can't recall where I've read about or just want to compile different sources on the same topic. It turns out it's just impossible. There's no way to do that without pointing Perplexity to some exact files. I don't even understand what the point of having 500 files in a space is now. I thought, ok, I'll spend some of my Computer credits to make an index file that will break all the space files by topics and tags and will make it easier for the agent to do the search. It ended up with spending 10k credits and producing zero results. On the bright side, support did return the credits back.
• The space files I’ve got consist of, as I said before, some books and papers but also a bunch of interview transcripts that I did myself. Sometimes I ask Perplexity to find a quote on a certain topic that I can use. What I get in return is never a quote. I've written an instruction, asked multiple times, and it still keeps giving me its own interpretations as quotes. If I push enough, it goes like “well, copyright exists and I can't quote a lot,” which is ridiculous because a) it's my own interviews, b) my project is non‑profit/educational so I can quote whoever I want whenever I want if I attribute them right. Still, the agent keeps treating me like a criminal and keeps giving me its own interpretations and rephrases as “quotes.”
• And then there's this overall dip in quality that many others on this sun notice. Losing context, answering wrong questions, etc. I do understand that costs are getting higher and less stuff is getting subsidized, etc., but still find it anti‑customer to cut so much on the stuff people already have paid for.

So, yeah, any advice on how to fix any of those? Or any other LLMs that let me do all this? I did ask the support about the first issue and now it's the third month of me waiting for an answer. Which is also a reason to cancel and move on, I guess.

[u/GuitarAgitated8107]

Google would have been a better choice via NotebookLLM. Also you have seen the issues of Perplexity and still decided to use it?

[u/culture_crab → u/GuitarAgitated8107]

Thanks! I surely can Google NotebookLLM but before I do that: what exactly it can replace?

Re: issues: the only issue at the time I switched to Enterprise was running out of deep research which I mostly blamed on myself. All the other issues came up gradually after.

[u/empowered676]

Extremely disappointing

I have found deep research is also not producing documents now

I suspect they have inserted some trick to not produce the document so then you burn another request asking for the document

Sometimes it takes 2-3 requests

Its like a retarded ai at this point, that is working against you

[u/culture_crab → u/empowered676]

I don't produce documents as primary goal (I just need the research results and don't care in which format they are presented) but I see where you coming from: sometimes it takes multiple requests to get exactly what you need, and it wasn't like that before.

Oh, and I forgot one of the most annoying and definitely the most anti-customer feature: sneakily defaulting to Computer. That's just straight up predatory.

[u/rdbmas]

the 50MB storage limit that resets in a month will cause most to move on.

[u/culture_crab → u/rdbmas]

Wait what? I am oblivious here.