{"id":7,"date":"2024-11-22T16:58:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/43.172.12.102:8080\/?p=7"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:05:27","slug":"create-a-local-alternative-to-perplexity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olares.com\/blog\/create-a-local-alternative-to-perplexity\/","title":{"rendered":"Create a Local Alternative to Perplexity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s Note:<\/strong> This article was written when our product was known as Terminus<\/strong>. As of our rebranding, we are now Olares<\/strong>. While the core concepts remain relevant, please refer to our current documentation<\/a> for the most up-to-date information.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve probably heard of Perplexity, the AI search engine that\u2019s been making waves. Compared to traditional searching, it provides concise, synthesized answers to queries rather than just a list of links to boost efficiency and productivity. However, Perplexity\u2019s unique capability comes with a price tag \u2014 $20 a month for the Pro Search, with free users limited to just 5 pro searches a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if you could build something similar on your own hardware, without monthly fees or usage limits? In this guide, we\u2019ll walk you through the process of creating your local Perplexity alternative using\u00a0Terminus<\/a>, an open-source, self-hosted operating system based on Kubernetes, along with other powerful open-source AI tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recreating Perplexity\u2019s workflow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we dive into our self-hosted solution, let\u2019s briefly explore how Perplexity works. Note that this is a simplified version, the actual workflow is much more sophisticated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perplexity workflow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. User sends a question to Perplexity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Perplexity understands the question and sends it to search engines like Google<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Google searches the web in real-time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Google returns sorted results to Perplexity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Perplexity creates a prompt using the question and results and sends it to an AI model like OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. AI compiles everything into a coherent answer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This workflow boils down to three key components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n