From the source
Perplexity has made its Computer agent able to run entirely on Apple silicon, keeping the model, agent harness and task execution on the Mac instead of the cloud.
- The Perplexity Mac app now offers two modes: fully local, which starts on the device and keeps planning, reasoning and file processing there, and Hybrid Compute, which begins in the cloud and combines frontier research with local handling of private files.
- Local mode runs Qwen 3.6 or PPLX Pro, a post-trained version of Qwen, and can work across private files and apps such as Notes, Messages, Mail and Numbers without sending personal data to the cloud.
- Perplexity says the model and agent can remain on the Mac through planning, analysis and final output, with code and tool execution in isolated sandboxes using security protocols also present in the cloud version.
- Users can separately authorize local Computer to reach the cloud for current information, browser work or connected apps, where its orchestrator can call on one of more than 15 frontier models.
- Local Computer is available now in the latest Perplexity Mac app for Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers with supported Apple silicon Macs; Perplexity recommends 36 GB or more and cites the new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro as examples.