Perplexity voice mode now runs on OpenAI’s GPT-Live-1 in the Mac app and on the web, starting October 28. GPT-Live-1 is the voice model OpenAI built to listen while it speaks.
Perplexity announced the update on X for Pro and Max subscribers. A single voice session can now work across several Computer sessions at once, start new tasks, and create and manage Projects.
Perplexity Voice Mode Is Limited to Pro and Max
Voice mode is available to all Pro and Max subscribers, and Perplexity has not said whether free accounts get it. Pro costs $17 a month when billed annually and Max costs $167 a month on the same terms, and Computer is part of both plans.
The Mac app needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later. The new app has carried Personal Computer since May 7, and Computer started running fully on the Mac on October 20 for Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers on supported Apple silicon Macs.
Computer is Perplexity’s agent for longer jobs. On the Mac, Perplexity’s Personal Computer page says it can read and write files in folders you connect, operate native apps such as Mail and Messages, and ask for on-device authorization before sensitive steps, and a voice session now manages all of it.
Voice has been in the Perplexity Mac app since the first native version launched in October 2024, when it opened in a separate widget. This update changes the model behind it and ties it to Computer sessions and Projects.
GPT-Live-1 Listens While It Speaks
OpenAI introduced GPT-Live on July 8 as the new engine for ChatGPT Voice. The model is full duplex, which means it keeps taking in what you say while it generates its own answer. That lets it decide many times per second whether to talk or wait.
For questions that need web search or deeper reasoning, GPT-Live hands the work to a frontier model in the background and keeps the conversation going. OpenAI’s launch post names GPT-5.5 as the model it used for that job at launch. Developers who use GPT-Live through OpenAI’s API choose that backend separately, and Perplexity has not said which one its voice mode uses.
OpenAI launched GPT-Live-1 and a smaller GPT-Live-1 mini in July. It began rolling out GPT-Live-1.1 in ChatGPT Voice on October 15, while Perplexity’s post names GPT-Live-1, the version OpenAI released through its API on September 10.
OpenAI says it optimized GPT-Live for the most popular languages in ChatGPT, and other languages may come with a non-native accent or gaps in fluency. Whether Perplexity’s voice mode covers the same languages is not stated in its post.
