Perplexity Computer runs on Windows. Your team still needs open source

Perplexity brought Personal Computer to Windows on 28 July 2026, inside the Perplexity app for Windows (launch post). It needs Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11, and it installs from the Microsoft Store or Perplexity's download page. A Pro, Max, or Enterprise plan is required, as it is on the Mac.

The Windows build does less than the Mac build, and Perplexity says so itself. Its help page lists installed-app control as "not yet available on Windows" (what Personal Computer is). On a Windows PC, Computer reads and writes files in the folders you connect, edits Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook documents, drives the Comet browser, and takes voice commands. It does not sit down in a native Windows application and operate it the way it operates Mail or Finder on a Mac.

The always-on story stays on Apple hardware. Perplexity documents 24/7 background work for a Mac mini, and the iPhone remote starts tasks on a Mac. Nothing in the Windows documentation promises the same. A team that wants an agent working after hours needs a machine that stays awake and signed in, or scheduled tasks inside the app.

Local models have a hardware gate. Portable Computer runs the model on the PC itself. Perplexity asks for 24 GB of graphics memory, from an NVIDIA GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPU or an AMD Ryzen AI Max processor (Portable Computer for Windows). One local model runs at a time on Windows, and an administrator decides whether local inference is allowed at all (checked October 2026).

A browser tab is the cheapest route. The hosted Computer is a cloud worker, so any Windows machine with a browser reaches it and no install is needed. Perplexity describes it as a worker that can run a task for hours or for months (Computer). What you give up is the desk: the agent works in Perplexity's environment, not in your folders.

The app is the route that touches the PC. Files, Office documents, Comet, voice. That reach stops at the machine the app is installed on, while Computer itself is available to Pro and Max subscribers on desktop, mobile, Slack, and Microsoft 365 (Computer). The bill is per person and per machine: one signed-in account, one subscription, one computer the agent can see. Ten analysts means ten installs, ten signed-in accounts, and ten sets of folder permissions to review.

Local mode is the route that keeps data on the device. It also asks the most of the hardware, and it shrinks as a fleet. One local model runs at a time per PC, each machine needs a 24 GB graphics card, and an administrator switch can turn local inference off.

All three share four properties. The configuration lives inside Perplexity's product. The work is metered, at 100 credits to the dollar, and active tasks pause when the balance reaches zero (how credits work). There is no self-hosted install. And every route starts from a person signing in.

The two Perplexity products are easy to mix up, and the difference changes the answer for a Windows team. Computer in the cloud is the worker you reach from anywhere. Personal Computer is the app that can see one machine. The side-by-side of Computer and Personal Computer covers that split, and the credits breakdown covers what the meter does to a month of real work.

On Kortix, that configuration is a repository your team controls, on servers you choose. Each task runs in a sandbox of its own, on its own branch. A new laptop needs no setup ritual: sign in from a browser on any Windows PC and the agent definitions, skills, and connector policies are waiting.

The stack runs in a VPC or on an on-prem network the team already owns, or on Kortix Cloud when there is none. That is the part Windows teams tend to care about most, because it moves the machine count off the desks and onto servers that stay awake. Twenty sessions run on twenty sandboxes, not on twenty laptops, and nothing has to stay awake after hours. The install and update steps are on the self-hosting guide.

Two honest notes for a Windows shop. The Kortix CLI ships for macOS and Linux, with WSL on Windows, so most people on a PC will want the web app. And the agents work in sandboxes Kortix provisions, not inside the applications on a person's desktop. Kortix does not drive an Excel file that lives on one analyst's laptop. For that job, the Perplexity Windows app is the shorter path.

Channels matter as much as machines. Slack and Microsoft Teams are live. Teams is where a lot of Windows-first companies already run their work, so a session can start from the chat a team is in rather than from a new window. Email is experimental, per project.

Where the two systems part company is who holds the configuration. Perplexity ships an app you sign into. Kortix ships a repository you clone. Whether Perplexity offers the same is what the open-source comparison settles. Short answers to the rest sit in the FAQ.

• The job is research, reports, code, tickets, and CRM updates across a team, and the configuration should belong to the company: Kortix, self-hosted, used from a browser on whatever Windows PCs people already have.
• The job is a file on one person's PC, and that person is at the desk: install the Perplexity app for Windows and connect the folders it needs.
• The job is a fleet of background tasks with no hardware of your own: Computer in a browser, with the credit rate in view before the volume goes up.
• The job needs data to stay on the machine and the team owns 24 GB graphics cards: Portable Computer on Windows, with local inference enabled by an administrator.