Perplexity Portable Computer, built with NVIDIA, is a fully local version of the company’s Computer agent that runs on the DGX Spark desktop. Work handled by the local models carries no per-credit charge, and the stack is available now to Pro, Max, Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max subscribers. Windows support is due in September.
What Perplexity Portable Computer does
The agent reads local files, searches across documents and code, takes actions on the machine and keeps long jobs running. It ships with Qwen 3.8 27B or PPLX 27B, Perplexity’s post-trained version of the model, and NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is due in the model picker. The orchestrator, planner, tool router and local search index all run on the device.
The zero-credit economics change the maths for high-volume work. When a task needs current information, the local orchestrator can escalate to cloud models, Perplexity search or wide and deep research, asking permission before anything leaves the machine. Connectors cover Google Drive, Gmail, Slack and GitHub, and dictation runs locally through NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3.5 ASR model.
Perplexity says its harness leads its own 53-task Local Knowledge Work Bench, scoring 82.6 per cent against 77.6 per cent for Pi and 74 per cent for Hermes, all running Qwen 3.8 27B on a DGX Spark. It also claims 61 per cent less wall time and 16 per cent fewer tokens than Hermes on web research.
The DGX Spark runs on the Grace Blackwell GB10 platform with a 20-core Arm CPU, an NVIDIA GPU and 128 GB of unified memory, installed through one-click setup in the Perplexity app. Perplexity is “very focused on Nvidia across DGX and RTX” for now, with Windows, RTX GPU PCs and DGX Station support all on the roadmap.
What it means for the UAE
For UAE developers and AI teams, Perplexity Portable Computer arrives as local-first and sovereign AI dominate the local agenda. The region has been pushing workloads onto on-premise and sovereign infrastructure, and a desktop agent that keeps data on the device fits that posture — the same reasoning behind Microsoft and G42’s UAE AI build-out. Meta is chasing the same local-first shift on the laptop side with its Muse Glimmer model.
The hardware is the gate. Perplexity already sells subscriptions in the UAE, and the DGX Spark is listed at about AED 21,800 on Amazon.ae — an import unit that includes import charges — and around AED 25,000 through UAE resellers. This is a five-figure desktop aimed at developer desks and small AI teams, not the casual subscription crowd.
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What is Perplexity Portable Computer?
A fully local version of Perplexity Computer, Perplexity’s agentic assistant. The models, orchestrator and sandbox run on the NVIDIA DGX Spark, and on-device tasks carry no per-credit charge. It can escalate to Perplexity’s cloud models and search when a task needs current information.
How much does the NVIDIA DGX Spark cost in the UAE?
About AED 21,800 on Amazon.ae for an import unit that includes import charges, and around AED 25,000 from UAE resellers. Portable Computer itself is included with a Perplexity Pro or Max subscription.
Can I run Portable Computer on a regular PC?
Today the supported target is the DGX Spark. Perplexity says RTX GPU PCs and Windows support are on the way, with Windows due in September. DGX Station support is also planned.
