Perplexity Launches Portable Computer on NVIDIA DGX Spark for Local AI.

Perplexity is moving its Computer agent off the cloud, at least for customers with the right hardware. The company has launched Portable Computer on NVIDIA DGX Spark, a local deployment that runs its orchestration model, subagent model and agent harness directly on the user’s machine.

The release targets a persistent concern around AI agents: sending sensitive files and context to remote infrastructure. According to Perplexity’s launch announcement on LinkedIn, Portable Computer has no cloud dependency for its standard runtime. Documents remain on the DGX Spark while the local models plan and execute tasks.

That makes the product notably different from the cloud model integrations Perplexity has recently added to Computer. Those releases have included DeepSeek V4 Pro in U.S.-hosted workflows and Grok 4.6 across Answer and Computer. Portable Computer instead makes local processing the default, while retaining a controlled route to more capable cloud systems.

Portable Computer installs and runs a post-trained PPLX 27B model on the customer’s hardware. Perplexity says Qwen 3.8 27B is also available, with support for NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning planned.

The local runtime includes three important layers:

• The orchestrator LLM, which interprets the request and coordinates the task
• Subagent LLMs, which handle delegated parts of the workflow
• The agent harness, which manages the broader execution process

Keeping all three layers local matters. A product that runs only its primary language model on-device could still transmit prompts, intermediate steps or documents through a cloud-based orchestration service. Perplexity’s stated architecture is broader, covering the system that plans and operates the agent as well as the models themselves.

The release is limited to text guidance. Perplexity also describes the system as user-gated and PII-flagged, although its announcement does not provide detailed technical documentation for those controls. In practice, the design is intended to help users identify personal information and retain authority over actions that could move a task outside the local environment.

Local models may not be sufficient for every assignment. When Portable Computer determines that a task needs what Perplexity calls “frontier reasoning,” the orchestrator can propose routing it to a frontier model in the cloud.

That handoff is not automatic. The system asks the user for approval first, and Perplexity says the escalation is limited to text guidance. Sensitive documents stay on the device, according to the company. The distinction gives businesses a middle path between fully local AI, which can offer greater data control, and cloud-hosted frontier models, which may perform better on difficult reasoning tasks.

The approval step will be especially relevant for teams working with client records, internal strategy documents, financial material or other information they do not want uploaded by default. Still, Perplexity has not disclosed in the announcement exactly what text is sent during an approved escalation, how PII flags are surfaced or whether administrators can establish organization-wide policies. Buyers assessing the feature for regulated work will need those details before treating it as a compliance solution.

Portable Computer is available now to Perplexity Pro and Max subscribers who have an NVIDIA DGX Spark. No separate price was announced, and the hardware requirement makes this a specialized deployment rather than a local mode for ordinary laptops.

For small businesses and builders, the immediate trade-off is clear. Portable Computer provides more control over where agent workloads run, but requires dedicated NVIDIA hardware and a qualifying subscription. It is most relevant to teams that have enough sensitive, repeatable AI work to justify maintaining local infrastructure.

What is Perplexity Portable Computer on NVIDIA DGX Spark?

It is a fully local version of Perplexity Computer. Its orchestrator LLM, subagent LLMs and agent harness run on an NVIDIA DGX Spark, allowing standard tasks and sensitive documents to remain on the user’s hardware.

Does Portable Computer ever send tasks to the cloud?

It can request cloud assistance when the local orchestrator determines that frontier reasoning is needed. The user must approve that handoff first, and Perplexity says it is PII-flagged, limited to text guidance and designed to keep sensitive documents on-device.

Who can use Portable Computer?

Portable Computer is available to Perplexity Pro and Max subscribers who own an NVIDIA DGX Spark. Perplexity has not announced support for conventional laptops or other local hardware in the provided release information.