How to Fact-Check News and Claims with Perplexity

The short version

Perplexity is quick at finding where a claim came from. Paste it in, ask what’s true, and use the citations to reach the original report, document or data. It does the searching; you do the judging.

Step by step

1. Paste the exact claim or link. Screenshots of posts work too; attach the image.
2. Split it into checkable parts: who, what, when, how many.
3. Ask for the original source. The court filing, the agency’s release, the study, the full interview.
4. Compare outlets. Ask what several credible news organizations report, and where they differ.
5. Read the labels. Citations marked Government, Academic or Trusted come from sites Perplexity’s review process has rated. They still need reading.
6. Check dates. Old stories often recirculate as new.
7. Decide: true, false, misleading or not yet known.

Prompts to copy

Check a claim:

Is this true? "[paste claim]"
Answer true, false, misleading or unverified. Break it into parts, link the original source
for each part, and say what's still unknown.

Find the origin of a viral post:

Where did this claim first appear, and when? Has it been fact-checked before? [paste text]

Balanced briefing:

Give me a balanced briefing on [news story] from multiple sources. What do they agree on,
where do they differ, and what's confirmed by official statements?

A quote:

Did [person] really say "[quote]"? Find the full original context (video, transcript or interview).

Example

You paste: a viral post saying a city “banned gas stoves in all homes starting next month”.

A good result: Perplexity finds the city council’s ordinance and local news coverage. The answer: misleading. The rule applies only to new buildings, from a date next year, and existing homes aren’t affected. You open the ordinance to confirm.

Mistakes to avoid

• Asking a loaded question. “Why is [claim] true?” invites a one-sided answer. Ask “Is it true?”
• Stopping at a summary of a summary. Go to the primary document.
• Trusting confident wording. An answer can sound sure while relying on a single source. Count the independent sources.
• Ignoring the date of the story.

Get a daily briefing

In your account settings, open Notifications and choose Create a Scheduled Search. Enter a prompt, such as Perplexity’s own example “Send me a daily summary of AI news”, pick a model and save. You can see and pause your scheduled searches in the same place.

When not to use it

For claims about your health, money or legal rights, use Perplexity to find the official source, then rely on that source or a professional. Max subscribers can also run a claim through Model Council to see where several AI models agree.

Related: check Perplexity’s sources and the ChatGPT fact-checking guide.