Perplexity announced on November 5, 2026 that every Agent API effort level now costs less per query, and reported higher or unchanged research quality across the presets. Medium improved from 55% to 77% on BrowseComp and DSQA while its cost fell almost 90%, and a new ultra level is available for broad research. Effort levels package model choice, research-step and tool-call limits, search behavior and available tools into named presets. They let developers select a balance of cost, speed and…