Snap has entered into a $400 million partnership with Perplexity AI to incorporate its AI-powered search engine into Snapchat. It will allow Snapchatters to ask questions and receive “clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources, all within Snapchat”. Users will still be able to use the company’s My AI chatbot.

Snap has a predominantly young audience, mostly Generation Z, attracted by the platform’s disappearing messaging feature. Snapchat’s global monthly active users has grown by seven per cent year-on-year to 943 million.

The answer engine will be integrated into Snapchat’s Chat interface beginning in 2026, according to Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel. The partnership represents “a first step in Snap’s effort to make Snapchat a platform where leading AI companies can connect with its global community in creative and trusted ways,” the two companies said in a statement.

Snap will not be selling advertising “against the Perplexity responses,” Spiegel said, but the integration will help “Perplexity drive additional subscribers, which I think is something that will be valuable to their business”. He also noted an opportunity ahead to “help distribute AI agents through our chat interface”.

The partnership comes at a time when the social media platform has struggled to grow its advertising business in line with expectations, while Meta is pouring billions of dollars into developing its own AI models.

Snap has strengthened its business in recent years — nurturing more small- and mid-size advertisers, unveiling new ad formats such as Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places, and increasingly investing in more lucrative “direct response” ads, which are more targeted and include a clear call to action, Bloomberg reports.

Also helping the company grow is Snapchat+, the company’s monthly subscription product. It allows Snap to reduce its reliance on advertising, which can be unpredictable. Snapchat+ has nearly 17 million paid subscribers, up from almost 16 million in the prior quarter. All eyes are also on Spectacles, the company’s augmented reality glasses. Snap recently said that it is moving the development of the device into a subsidiary called Specs.