Portable Computer

Portable Computer is a way of running Perplexity's AI assistant program entirely on a single desktop-side device, with no internet server involved. Work that used to be uploaded to the cloud for processing can now be handled completely by one computer sitting in the office.

The role of breaking down tasks and giving instructions, the role of actually opening files and executing the work, and the role of an orchestrator connecting the two — all of it happens inside that single device. Neither the requests nor the intermediate outputs ever leave the machine.

That makes it especially useful for handling documents that become a problem the moment they're uploaded to an outside server, like contracts or unreleased project proposals.

In articles, you'll see phrasing like 'Perplexity has released a Portable Computer for the DGX Spark.' Here, "portable" doesn't mean you can carry it around — it means the entire task runs on the device itself, without a cloud server. The DGX Spark itself is also a small desktop computer, not a portable laptop.

1. Install the Portable Computer runtime on a personal AI computer such as the DGX Spark.
2. Choose the model you want to use.
3. Hand it material that's hard to upload elsewhere. Example prompts: "Organize the contracts in this folder by clause" or "Summarize this unreleased proposal in three paragraphs."
4. Check your network usage to confirm that the results and intermediate outputs never leave the device.