Open-source Perplexity Computer: FAQ

Open-source Perplexity Computer questions

Perplexity Computer is a closed cloud agent from Perplexity AI: it routes each subtask across about 19 hosted models it selects, and it ships only inside a paid subscription (Builder.io review, checked October 2026). Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System and the leading open-source alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work: your agents, skills, company memory, and connectors live in one git repo you own. These longer answers cover what open source changes for a team deciding between the two.

What an open-source alternative actually gives you

Open source means you can read, fork, and audit the code that runs your agents. In Kortix the whole system is visible: agents and skills are markdown files, the rules each agent follows sit in kortix.yaml, and company memory is files that accumulate over time. Because the configuration lives in a git repo, you can grep the whole company, diff any change, and roll any part of it back. Perplexity Computer keeps the configuration, the models, and the connector set inside Perplexity's product.

Self-hosting Kortix

Self-hosting moves the whole system onto hardware you control. Kortix runs as one Docker Compose stack, so the manual path is three commands on a Linux box: install the CLI, initialize the instance, then start it. Agent sessions run on a separate sandbox provider, not on the stack itself, and a self-hosted instance uses your own model key by default. The self-hosting guide covers the host sizes, the evaluation mode, and the backup paths.

The models you can run

Kortix is model-agnostic. Any model provider with your own keys. Or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Or sign in with your OpenCode Console account for OpenCode Zen and Go. The model is chosen per agent, per session, or per message, so a better model can be adopted the day it lands. Perplexity Computer takes the opposite approach: it routes each task across about 19 hosted models, and that routing stays inside Perplexity (Builder.io review).

Why teams choose a repo they own

A rented agent works inside someone else's product, on their models, behind their rules. The floor is $200 a month on the Perplexity Max plan, and every task adds credits on top (Builder.io review). Self-hosted Kortix is $0 software: you pay for the machine you run it on and the model APIs you attach, at rates you set. For the managed path, run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network.

Where Kortix sits in the open-source field

Kortix is the pick for a team that wants the whole system on its own side. OpenClaw is an open-source assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use. Eigent is an open-source desktop for multi-agent workflows. AnythingLLM runs a private assistant entirely on your device. Vane is a self-hosted answering engine that cites its sources. Each covers a narrower lane than Kortix, which combines self-hosting, any model with your keys, 3,000+ apps in a click, and a change request on every piece of finished work.

The short version

Kortix is open source, self-hostable, and free to run on your own hardware, with a change request a human approves before work lands. Perplexity Computer is closed and cloud only, with a $200 monthly floor and per-task credits on top. The head-to-head comparison sets the two side by side.

Go deeper

• How to self-host Kortix, step by step
• Open-source Perplexity Computer alternatives you can self-host
• Kortix vs Perplexity Computer, feature by feature
• What Perplexity Computer costs
• A Perplexity Computer review
• Open-source Perplexity Computer explained on the Kortix blog