Request for Clarification and Activation of API Access (Invalid Model Error – AI Risk Analysis Project)

Bug Reports
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1

I am currently developing an AI-powered risk assessment and adverse media screening dashboard that integrates the Perplexity API to analyze financial crime-related news and entities. The project is designed to demonstrate real-time due diligence, risk scoring, and risk visualization using Perplexity’s large language models.

However, I am encountering repeated errors when attempting to invoke the API. The response consistently shows:

{“error”: {“message”: “Invalid model ‘pplx-7b-chat’. Permitted models can be found in the documentation at https://docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/models.”, “type”: “invalid_model”, “code”: 400}}

I have tried multiple model names, including "pplx-7b-chat", "pplx-70b-chat", and "pplx-search-v1", but all return the same invalid model message. Additionally, attempting to access the /models endpoint results in a 404 error.

Could you please assist with the following:

  1. Confirm if my current API key includes permission for model access.

  2. Provide the correct model names that are accessible for my API key. I have Perplexity Pro.

For reference, my API key follows the format:
pplx-****

Technical Summary:

The project runs in both Google Colab and Python environments.
It utilizes a lightweight analyzer script that sends dynamic queries to the Perplexity API and presents risk scores through a dark-mode HTML dashboard. The dashboard visually ranks entities as Low, Medium, or High risk, based on detected fraud, money laundering, or sanction terms within Perplexity’s search responses.

I am preparing this as part of my AI compliance presentation, so timely activation or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

2

Hey Eesh — welcome! :waving_hand:

The error occurs because the pplx-* models (like pplx-7b-chat or pplx-70b-chat) have been deprecated. Please switch to the Sonar model family instead — for most use cases, sonar or sonar-pro will work perfectly.

You can find the full list of supported models here: https://docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/models

A /models endpoint does not exist in our API, so seeing a 404 there is expected. Refer to the documentation site as the error suggests you do.