Brave Leo: contextual help with a privacy-first design
Brave Leo is built into the Brave browser. It can summarize pages, PDFs, Google Docs, and Google Sheets; answer questions about the current material; translate and create text; and use Brave Search to add current web information. Leo is available on desktop and mobile, and Brave offers Bring Your Own Model for local or remote models.
Brave says the free experience needs no account. Its privacy description says Leo does not retain or share chats and does not use them for additional model training. Requests can include the prompt, conversation context, and relevant page context, but Brave says it does not collect identifiers that can be linked to you. If you want history, Leo can store it locally on your device.
This makes Leo a sensible companion when the job is “help me understand this page without moving it elsewhere.” It does not remove the need to inspect a source before repeating an important claim.
Perplexity: research answers, sources, and controlled browser actions
Perplexity’s main experience is an answer engine that presents a response with sources for the reader to inspect. That is useful when research is the job: you can follow a citation, compare source dates, and decide whether the answer has enough evidence. Citations reduce the cost of checking; they do not turn a generated answer into proof.
Perplexity also offers Comet and its Assistant. Its enterprise permissions documentation says an administrator can allow or disable browser control, control whether “Always Allow” is available, and set a domain to Browser Control, Read Only, or No Access. That is the right shape of control for browser actions: decide which sites it can see and when it must ask first.
| Question | Brave Leo | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Explain or transform material already in Brave | Research questions with sources to inspect |
| Privacy choice | Brave describes anonymous requests, no server-side chat retention, and optional local history | Consumer data controls are account settings; Enterprise has separate protections |
| Browser actions | Browser-context assistance | Comet Assistant permissions can be restricted by organization and domain |
| What to verify | The original page or document | Each cited source, its date, and whether it supports the conclusion |
Data controls: read the plan you are using
Perplexity’s consumer and Enterprise terms are not interchangeable. Its data collection guidance says AI Data Retention is on by default for Free, Pro, and Max users. A person can turn it off in account settings for future data, but that does not delete data already collected. Perplexity says Enterprise data is not used for AI training, and Enterprise admins can set retention controls under the conditions described in its help center.
That is not an argument against Perplexity. It is a reason to match the tool and plan to the data. If a query contains a customer’s order, an internal incident, or private company instructions, review the plan, organization settings, retention policy, and the authorization to share it before sending it.
Which is better for your job?
Use Leo when a page, document, or PDF in the Brave browser is the immediate context and its privacy approach is the deciding factor. It is particularly convenient for a quick explanation or rewrite while you browse.
Use Perplexity when you want a research answer with sources you can open and evaluate. If you enable Comet actions for a team, begin with the smallest useful permissions: read-only where possible, confirm actions for sensitive domains, and review the organization-level settings.
Neither tool replaces the operating work of customer support. A support answer needs the company’s approved knowledge, rules for exceptions, a route to a person, and proof that a change behaves properly in the actual channel.
Using eesel CLI to turn a research finding into a support review
Suppose a support manager finds a newly published carrier delay policy while researching in Perplexity. The policy says to acknowledge a published delay, never invent an arrival date, and hand off an order-specific investigation. The next job is not to let a browser agent change customer replies. It is to compare that policy with the live support teammate and make a reviewable proposal. Before chat, the manager confirms the shipping teammate and its connected helpdesk or carrier systems have only the permissions intended for the review.
The manager can ask Codex, Cursor, or Claude Code to use the eesel CLI with Node.js 18.17 or newer. The CLI operates the same eesel workspace and teammate as the dashboard, and every command returns JSON:
npx @eesel/cli instructions --agent shipping
npx @eesel/cli integrations download list --agent shipping
npx @eesel/cli activity --agent shipping
The coding agent reads the JSON and the policy text supplied by the manager. It can identify the current instruction, list the connected knowledge sources, and propose this narrowly worded diff: “Acknowledge a published carrier delay. Do not state an arrival date unless an approved source provides one. Hand off any order-specific investigation.” It should name what it could not verify rather than fill gaps with an answer.
The support owner checks the policy source, approves or rejects the proposed change, and confirms any relevant helpdesk or carrier permissions. For a supported write, --dry-run prints the exact server call without sending it. For a fictional case after that check:
npx @eesel/cli new --name "carrier-delay-policy-review" --agent shipping
npx @eesel/cli chat "Fictional evaluation only. Supplied carrier notice: regional deliveries are delayed; no arrival date is published. Approved test policy: acknowledge a published delay, do not invent an arrival date, and route order-specific investigations to a support person. Customer asks when fictional order DEMO-104 will arrive. Draft only the reply and handoff proposal. Do not look up the order, contact anyone, change records or configuration, or approve actions." --agent shipping
Chat is real, billed workspace work, not a sandbox. The owner checks whether the reply acknowledges the supplied delay, avoids an invented date, and proposes support investigation. A prompt does not restrict the actual connected-service permissions. After applying an owner-approved change, use fresh conversations without pasting the desired policy: one published delay with no date and one missing-parcel report with no confirmed carrier notice. The second must not be presented as a confirmed regional delay. Inspect activity, then verify safe native-channel delivery and handoff before expanding the workflow.
The important distinction is control. Perplexity can accelerate finding a policy and Leo can explain it in a browser. eesel CLI lets a person, script, or coding agent inspect and propose work on a defined teammate, while the owner retains approval and checks the real outcome. Setup and observation commands are free; chat is billed work.
Verdict
Pick Brave Leo for private browser-context assistance. Pick Perplexity for source-led research and, where appropriate, controlled browser help. In either case, inspect the source before acting on the answer.
For support work, use research as input to a review, not as an automatic production instruction. An eesel teammate provides the connection between a documented policy, the support workflow, and an accountable human reviewer. Try eesel when you are ready to set that workflow up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between Brave Leo and Perplexity?
Leo is an assistant built into Brave with a privacy-first design for browser context. Perplexity is a search and answer product built around research responses and sources, with its own browser assistant and plan options.
Does Perplexity use personal search data to improve AI?
Perplexity says consumer Free, Pro, and Max accounts have AI Data Retention enabled by default. Users can turn it off in settings for future data; Enterprise data is not used for AI training.
Can a Perplexity organization limit Comet Assistant actions?
Perplexity says Enterprise admins can enable or disable browser control, require consent by not allowing Always Allow, and set Browser Control, Read Only, or No Access for specific domains.
Does Leo require an account?
Brave says no account or login is required for the free Leo experience. A Premium subscription requires an account to verify access, while Brave says usage remains unlinkable to that account.
