Send LLM Messages to the Perplexity Chat API (All Features, No .json Option)

Sends a chat message history to the Perplexity Chat API, supporting all documented API parameters as of July 2025.

perplexity_chat(
  .llm,
  .model = "sonar",
  .max_tokens = 1024,
  .temperature = NULL,
  .top_p = NULL,
  .frequency_penalty = NULL,
  .presence_penalty = NULL,
  .stop = NULL,
  .search_domain_filter = NULL,
  .return_images = FALSE,
  .search_recency_filter = NULL,
  .search_mode = "web",
  .reasoning_effort = NULL,
  .return_related_questions = FALSE,
  .search_after_date_filter = NULL,
  .search_before_date_filter = NULL,
  .last_updated_after_filter = NULL,
  .last_updated_before_filter = NULL,
  .top_k = NULL,
  .web_search_options = NULL,
  .api_url = "https://api.perplexity.ai/",
  .timeout = 60,
  .stream = FALSE,
  .verbose = FALSE,
  .max_tries = 3,
  .dry_run = FALSE
)

Arguments

.llm

An LLMMessage object containing the conversation history.

.model

Model name to use (default: "sonar").

.max_tokens

Max completion tokens (default: 1024).

.temperature

Controls response randomness (0 < x < 2).

.top_p

Nucleus sampling threshold (0 < x < 1).

.frequency_penalty

Number > 0. Penalizes frequent tokens.

.presence_penalty

Numeric between -2 and 2. Penalizes present tokens.

.stop

Stop sequence(s), string or character vector/list.

.search_domain_filter

Domains to allowlist/denylist for search (max 10, "-domain" for denylist).

.return_images

Logical; if TRUE, returns images from search.

.search_recency_filter

Restrict search to recent ("hour","day","week","month").

.search_mode

"web" (default) or "academic" (prioritize scholarly sources).

.reasoning_effort

Reasoning level: "low", "medium" (default), "high" (for deep research models).

.return_related_questions

Logical; if TRUE, returns related questions.

.search_after_date_filter

Only content published after date (mm/dd/yyyy).

.search_before_date_filter

Only content published before date (mm/dd/yyyy).

.last_updated_after_filter

Only content updated after date (mm/dd/yyyy).

.last_updated_before_filter

Only content updated before date (mm/dd/yyyy).

.top_k

Top-k token sampling (integer, 0 disables).

.web_search_options

Named list with search config (e.g. list(search_context_size = "high")).

.api_url

API endpoint (default: "https://api.perplexity.ai/").

.timeout

Timeout in seconds (default: 60).

.stream

If TRUE, streams response.

.verbose

If TRUE, prints additional info.

.max_tries

Max request retries (default: 3).

.dry_run

If TRUE, returns constructed request instead of sending.

Value

An updated LLMMessage object with the assistant's reply and metadata, including citations and search_results.