Are Perplexity Search API results returned in relevance order?

Definition: Yes. Perplexity documents the Search API response as a ranked results[] array, so the sequence is the API's returned ranking order. The documentation does not publish a relevance score or an ordering formula.

Key facts

• Perplexity's Search API reference says that the Search API returns a ranked results[] array with a title, URL, snippet, and optional date fields for each result.
• The Search API quickstart describes the output as real-time, ranked web results in structured data and says the API is intended for raw results that your application processes.
• JSON preserves array sequence: RFC 8259 defines an array as an ordered sequence of values.

What does Perplexity document about the order?

The answer is yes at the level of the returned sequence. The Search API reference labels results[] as ranked, and the quickstart calls the output real-time, ranked web results. A client can therefore read the array from its first element to its last as the order supplied by the Search API. The word “ranked” describes the result ordering.

The Search API is a structured search response. Perplexity's reference distinguishes the two shapes: the Search API returns results[], while the Agent API returns a researched answer with citations. The quickstart likewise says to use Search API output as raw results for your own processing.

What does the response contain?

The reference shows this response shape:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "<string>",
      "url": "<string>",
      "snippet": "<string>",
      "date": "<string>",
      "last_updated": "<string>"
    }
  ],
  "id": "<string>",
  "server_time": "<string>"
}

The documented result object exposes content and date fields. An integration that needs to retain the service's ordering should preserve the array sequence when it stores or renders the results. RFC 8259 supplies the JSON rule behind that handling: “An array is an ordered sequence of zero or more values.”

Which settings change the result set?

max_results controls how many results the request asks for. The quickstart states that it accepts values from 1 to 20 and defaults to 10. The API reference further documents up to 20 results for web search and up to 50 for people search, with values above 20 requiring search_type=people.

Other request fields affect which results are eligible. The reference documents search_domain_filter for limiting results to specific domains, publication date filters, last-updated date filters, and search_recency_filter with hour, day, week, month, and year values. The quickstart says that an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code can produce more geographically relevant results.

How should a client read the array?

Treat results as an ordered list and keep each item's position when passing results to another component. The reference lists title, url, snippet, date, and last_updated as result fields to display or store.

Related terms

• Perplexity
• Can Perplexity search be restricted to recent sources?
• Perplexity Sonar

FAQ

Should the first item be treated as the most relevant result?

Perplexity documents the array as ranked, so the array order is the documented ranking signal.

Does max_results reorder the results?

The documentation describes max_results as a limit on the number of returned results.

Is this the same response as the Perplexity Agent API?

Perplexity documents separate response shapes: the Search API returns structured results[] data, and its reference describes the Agent API as a prose answer with citations.

Sources

1. Perplexity, "Search the Web", 28 September 2026
2. Perplexity, "Perplexity Search API", 6 October 2026
3. Internet Engineering Task Force, "RFC 8259: The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format", December 2017

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