Perplexity API Key

Detects Perplexity API keys, which use a distinctive pplx- prefix followed by a 48-character alphanumeric body. A leaked key grants unauthorized, billed access to Perplexity's search and chat completion API and any prompts or data routed through it.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: high
Confidence justification: High confidence: the pplx- prefix is confirmed by Perplexity's own API key management documentation, and the fixed 48-character alphanumeric body (confirmed by the community-maintained gitleaks ruleset) makes false positives extremely unlikely.
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)
Frameworks: CIS Controls, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2
Data categories: credentials, security
Scope: narrow
Risk rating: 9
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Unsupported, Macie: Unsupported, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Unsupported, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?<![A-Za-z0-9_-])pplx-[a-zA-Z0-9]{48}(?![A-Za-z0-9_-])

Corroborative evidence keywords

perplexity, perplexity.ai, PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, pplx-api, api key, api_key, apikey, access key, access token, auth token, authorization, bearer, conn str, connection string, connectionstring, cookie, credential, database, host, [object Object] (+37 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

pplx-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv — Perplexity API key, pplx- prefix + 48-char alphanumeric body
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv — Labelled Perplexity key in an env assignment
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 — Mixed-case Perplexity key body (48 chars)

Should not match

plx-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv — Wrong prefix (plx- instead of pplx-)
pplx-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO — Body too short (15 instead of 48 characters)
rotate the perplexity api key before deployment — Prose mention without a token value
template example placeholder record identifier — Template/sample context should be excluded even when anchor words are present

Known false positives

Documentation or examples showing placeholder pplx- strings. Mitigation: Require corroborative Perplexity keywords and check for placeholder markers (example, xxxx).