Perplexity launches Photon, a Rust retrieval engine cutting p99 latency to 65 ms
On 30 September 2026 MarkTechPost and technical coverage reported Photon, Perplexity’s new Rust retrieval and ranking engine, already serving production traffic. The company says it cut p99 latency from about 800 ms to 65 ms, and offers a Fast Search API mode at $1 per 1,000 requests.