Mozilla is bringing a new way for you to search the web to Firefox by including Perplexity’s AI answer engine as an optional provider. The feature is launching on desktop globally, with a conversational results format that includes cited sources, followed by mobile.
The integration comes after a pilot in certain markets and out of popular request, said Mozilla. From the unified search button in the address bar, users can toggle over to Perplexity or go into their Firefox settings and make it a default tool — continuing to control how and when they want AI working for them.
Perplexity doesn’t spit out a list of links as in classic search, but factual answers with references to them; it allows for follow-up prompts within the same thread. With Firefox, the move delivers an AI-native search experience within a trusted browser without requiring a distinct app or ecosystem.
Why This Change Matters for the Future of Search
Search behavior is gravitating toward “answer engines” that deliver aggregated results rather than simply indexing them. With Google estimated by StatCounter to control about nine in 10 global searches, any widely used browser that makes AI-powered responses easily accessible could heavily influence how people find out stuff.
From Mozilla’s perspective, this is an end-run to remain competitive for user experience and choice. It meshes with the company’s history of openness and privacy, while recognizing that many users are interested in AI assistance for research, comparisons and fast summaries. For Perplexity, being featured in Firefox’s provider list is distribution leverage: Traffic for AI answer engines has been surging quickly according to Similarweb data, and browser-level promotion can make that chart move faster.
How the Integration Works Inside Firefox
When you type something into Firefox’s search bar and click the search button, Perplexity will appear as an option to choose from. Pick it for each query or set it as your default in settings. The AI returns a generated response and inline citations that you can expand to check the validity of claims or drill down on.
What that looks like in practice is that a search term such as “compare 300-mile-range electric SUVs” can generate a short ranked summary with the nuts and bolts for specs, sources to dig deeper and follow-up questions.
You can tweak the answer in a conversational way — say “show only models under $50K” — without beginning a new search or switching tabs.
It both minimizes the back-and-forth of classic search and generates a well-documented history trail through citations. And since the option exists alongside other search engines, you can always hop over to a more traditional results page whenever you like.
Privacy and Data Expectations for AI Answers
Mozilla has long pitched Firefox on its commitment to privacy, and Perplexity says publicly it does not sell personal data. That combination could be attractive to users who are skeptical of opaque data practices in generative AI. As always, the devil is in those details: how queries are logged, for how long and with what practitioner controls. Mozilla’s data-minimization principles and clear settings menus are intended to keep those choices front and center for users.
Power users, however, now have another tool in Firefox: browser profiles — and they are widely available. You can have different profiles (work, school, personal) with their own default search provider and extensions to sandbox AI use per context.
Competitive Context and the Key Open Questions
Rivals are pursuing different strategies. Microsoft is integrating Copilot deeply into Edge, Google is testing AI Overviews in search and a number of startups are shipping AI-first browsers. Mozilla is somewhat more modular: in the answer-engine-as-a-piecemeal-option sense, not a single AI-stack-for-all scenario.
The advantages are self-evident — all about user choice, less lock-in and flexibility as the AI world continues to evolve. The risks are equally clear. Answer engines hallucinate, and confidently summarize low-quality sources or miss something that’s just happened. Independent analyses by NIST and groups from Stanford HAI have both demonstrated the degree of variability in the reliability of generative models, as shown in their cited articles; citations go a long way, and they’re still necessary to verify claims on topics that require fine-grained control.
What to Watch Next as Firefox Adds AI Search
Mozilla has hinted it may add additional AI search choices over time, effectively creating something of a marketplace for answer engines within Firefox. In addition, the company is still experimenting with visual search, including via Google Lens for people who use Google as their default option — suggesting a wider approach that combines conventional, visual and generative tools based on user preference.
For now, the Perplexity integration is the big news: Plug in your AI question and — voilà! — you get AI responses with citations at a click inside a browser that millions already use. If adoption remains strong and reliability stays high, this may become the way many Firefox users begin investigating everything from product recommendations to policy explainers — without ditching the open web or their favorite browser.
