News in Short

• Perplexity has launched Portable Computer, a local version of its Computer AI agent.
• It currently runs on Nvidia DGX Spark hardware.
• The system uses a post-trained Qwen 3.8 27B model.
• Portable Computer can analyse local data and search files and code.

Perplexity has launched Portable Computer, a new version of its Perplexity Computer AI agent that brings cloud-like AI agent capabilities to local hardware. The system can run the AI agent on an edge device, allowing users to analyse data, search files and execute complex workflows without sending every task to the cloud.

The company says Portable Computer currently runs on Nvidia DGX Spark hardware using a post-trained version of the Qwen 3.8 27B model, also known as PPLX 27B. However, the system can still use cloud computing for tasks that require more advanced reasoning or access to real-time information, provided the user gives permission.

Portable Computer Availability

Perplexity has started rolling out Portable Computer to Pro and Max subscribers using Nvidia DGX Spark systems. The company first launched the product for Linux devices and plans to bring it to Windows devices soon.

Perplexity also plans to make Portable Computer available on Nvidia RTX GPU-powered PCs, expanding the technology beyond DGX Spark.

The system currently uses the Qwen 3.8 27B model, while Perplexity says its model picker will soon add Nvidia Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, a new 30B open model.

Perplexity Brings AI Agent Capabilities to Local Devices

Unlike the original Perplexity Computer, which relies on cloud computing to execute tasks, Portable Computer moves several parts of the AI agent’s workflow onto the local device.

The system can run its orchestrator, planner, tool router, scheduler, durable task queue and local search index on the edge device. This allows users to keep their files and data locally while the AI agent works on them.

The locally running Qwen model has received additional training to handle most tasks directly on the device. It can read local files, search through documents and code, and execute tasks without automatically sending the underlying data to the cloud.

Cloud Escalation Still Available

Perplexity has not completely eliminated cloud computing from the workflow. Instead, Portable Computer uses a hybrid approach that lets the user decide when a task should leave the local device.

For more complex requests, the local orchestrator can escalate a task to the cloud with the user’s permission. This can allow the AI agent to access real-time internet information, connected applications or one of more than 15 frontier AI models for advanced reasoning.

For example, Perplexity says a user could keep confidential information from a term sheet on the local device while allowing the agent to access current market comparisons or recent deals through the cloud.

This local-first approach gives Portable Computer a different proposition from conventional cloud-based AI agents. Users can keep sensitive files and everyday workflows on their own hardware while still accessing cloud-based capabilities when a task requires them.