Carbon (Perplexity) vs Compresr
Updated March 27, 2026
Overview
Carbon, acquired by Perplexity in December 2024, provided pre-built data connectors for ingesting unstructured data from 25+ sources into LLM applications. Its managed API was wound down in March 2025, with its technology now integrated into Perplexity's enterprise data connectivity stack. Carbon's connectors supported Google Drive, Notion, Slack, Confluence, and other popular data sources for RAG pipelines.
LLM context compression for better accuracy — compresses long contexts to fit more relevant information while maintaining quality.
Key features
Core capabilities each platform advertises.
- Data connectors
- Google Drive
- Notion
- Slack integration
- Context compression
- Accuracy preservation
- Long context optimization
- RAG enhancement
Strengths and tradeoffs
What each tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind.
Pros
- Pre-built connectors for easy integration with multiple data sources
- AI-optimized data processing with automatic chunking, embedding, and cleaning
- Enterprise-grade security with SOC 2 Type II compliance and end-to-end encryption
- Streamlined RAG development with production-ready infrastructure
- Now backed by Perplexity AI with enhanced enterprise capabilities
Cons
- Company was acquired and original standalone service is winding down
- Pricing information not transparently available
- Limited documentation on migration paths after acquisition
- Uncertain future roadmap as integration with Perplexity progresses
Pros
- Strongest academic credentials in compression with NeurIPS and EMNLP publications
- Four-person founding team from EPFL reduces single-founder risk
- Open-source Context Gateway creates community adoption funnel
- Two-level compression (coarse + fine-grained) is more sophisticated than token-only approaches
- SEC filing benchmark demonstrates real enterprise RAG improvement with measurable results
Cons
- No disclosed pricing for the paid API tier
- No named customers or revenue metrics shared publicly
- Competes directly with The Token Company on overlapping value proposition
- 200x compression claim is for aggressive workloads — default is 50%
Carbon (Perplexity) or Compresr — which should you choose?
Choose Carbon (Perplexity) if you wantChoose if you want
Choose Compresr if you wantChoose if you want
- Long document processing
- RAG context optimization
- Token-efficient retrieval
- Context window management
Compare Carbon (Perplexity) and Compresr on your own traffic
Respan lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 500+ models through one gateway.