perplexity-load-scale

name	perplexity-load-scale
description	Load test Perplexity Sonar API integrations and plan capacity. Use when running performance tests, planning for traffic growth, or benchmarking Perplexity latency under load. Trigger with phrases like "perplexity load test", "perplexity scale", "perplexity performance test", "perplexity capacity", "perplexity benchmark".
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash(k6:*), Bash(kubectl:*)
version	1.12.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","perplexity","testing","performance","scaling"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw

Perplexity Load & Scale

Overview

Load testing and capacity planning for Perplexity Sonar API. Key constraint: Perplexity rate limits at 50 RPM (default tier), and every request performs a live web search with variable latency. Load testing must respect these limits to avoid burning through credits.

Capacity Constraints

Constraint	Default Limit	Impact
RPM (requests per minute)	50	Hard ceiling on throughput
Context window	127K tokens	Limits conversation history
sonar latency	1-3s	Throughput: ~20-50 concurrent
sonar-pro latency	3-8s	Throughput: ~6-16 concurrent
search_domain_filter	20 domains max	Per-request limit

Prerequisites

• k6 load testing tool installed
• Separate Perplexity API key for load testing
• Budget approval (load tests cost money)

Instructions

Step 1: k6 Load Test Script

// perplexity-load-test.js
import http from "k6/http";
import { check, sleep } from "k6";
import { Rate, Trend } from "k6/metrics";

const errorRate = new Rate("perplexity_errors");
const citationCount = new Trend("perplexity_citations");

export const options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: "1m", :  },    
    { : , :  },    
    { : , :  },   
    { : , :  },   
    { : , :  },    
  ],
  : {
    : [],  
    : [],    
  },
};

 queries = [
  ,
  ,
  ,
  ,
  ,
];

   () {
   query = queries[.(.() * queries.)];

   response = http.(
    ,
    .({
      : ,
      : [{ : , : query }],
      : ,
    }),
    {
      : {
        : ,
        : ,
      },
      : ,
    }
  );

   success = (response, {
    :  r. === ,
    :  {
       {  .(r.).[]... > ; }
       {  ; }
    },
  });

  errorRate.(!success);

   (response. === ) {
     {
       body = .(response.);
      citationCount.(body.?. || );
    }  {}
  }

  
  ( + .());
}