Ask HN: 900x downgrade of Perplexity Pro – anyone else hit?

They've already given away too many pro subscriptions, hell to renew I was proposed $100 for an annual subscription, 50% off. My theory for why they're doing this, they're about to aggressively advertise Perplexity during the super bowl and in case there's sudden bump in usage they've limited everyone but max subscribers to make costs sustainable. And they need sustainable costs or significant profitability ASAP because IPO or series F will be the end of 2026 / early 2027.

I still dislike this because if I knew I was going to be limited this much and with such poor UX of not knowing the monthly research limit was approaching until I just consumed it, I would not have paid the $100/yr right now and would have tried using an alternative. I'm sticking around for the next couple of weeks to see if they pivot and if they don't I'll request a prorated refund for my annual subscription.

Yes, it's now practically unusable, and anyone who paid the full price, like me, has been ripped off. An AI bot responds and refuses to refund the unused portion of the subscription. In my jurisdiction (EU), this is completely illegal; I will contact the authorities and request a full refund. I used to get 600 Pro queries per day, now I get 20 per month. Support responds via AI and says the limits have been updated and are dynamic, but denies the refund. There were already the well-known traffic redirection issues on economic models, now this. All the alternatives offer much more in the free plan than what Perplexity offers by paying as much as a premium plan from other providers.