The Scheduled AI Job Template
Follow
Mathew PaquetTemplate · 4 min read

The Scheduled AI Job Template

Pick the right first job for an AI that runs on a schedule, set how often it runs, and write it in five sentences you can check.

01 A schedule repeats three things

The tech YouTuber NetworkChuck gave Perplexity's AI agent a job every hour, then cut it to every four hours "because my credit card was melting."

On September 29, 2026, Perplexity turned that into a feature. Its agent, called Computer, now runs Automations: you describe a job once, then pick when it runs. Every hour at the most, or daily, weekly, monthly. Or you pick a trigger instead: an email from a certain client in Gmail, a message in a Slack channel, an issue opened in GitHub.

Two details matter. While it waits for a trigger, it costs nothing; you pay in credits only when it runs. And it is not a fixed recipe like a Zapier automation, where step two always follows step one. You give it the outcome, and it works out its own steps every run.

What repeats What goes wrong The setting that fixes it
The bill Same job, more runs, a bigger bill How often it runs
The silence It stays quiet when nothing is new, and skips runs when credits run out A check-in every run
A bad call One misreading lands in every report, and each run builds on the last Human review on anything that leaves the building
02 Pick the job: three questions

Hand it a job only if all three are yes.

Does it change on a rhythm? Prices, invoices, replies: things that move on a weekly or monthly beat.
Can you check the result in two minutes? A link, a number you can compare, a source you can open.
If it's wrong once, is that cheap? A draft you read is cheap. An email sent or money spent is not.
Job Verdict
Weekly competitor price check Passes all three
Reminder for overdue invoices Passes, if it drafts the email instead of sending it
A cash forecast you can check against the bank Passes: a draft you read, not a decision
Ranking job applicants Fails: if it's wrong, a real person never gets a call back

Anything that sends, spends or ranks people on its own fails the last question. Not never. Just not first.

03 Set the rhythm before the job

Perplexity doesn't publish what a job costs. One heavy user tracked her own runs: a simple task took about 30 credits, a research run 50 to 70, with a credit worth about a cent. So one research run costs well under a dollar.

Now multiply. Weekly is about four runs a month. Every hour is about 720. Same job, 180 times the runs. By her numbers, that is the difference between a few dollars a month and a few hundred.

Price a cadence before you pick it
Runs a month: [ABOUT 4 IF WEEKLY / ABOUT 720 IF HOURLY]
x Credits a run: [ABOUT 30 IF SIMPLE / 50 TO 70 IF RESEARCH, BY ONE USER'S TRACKING]
= Credits a month: [ ]
/ 100 = Dollars a month, at about a cent a credit: [ ]

How fast does this thing really change? [HOURLY / DAILY / WEEKLY / MONTHLY]

Match the rhythm to how fast the thing changes. Competitors don't reprice every hour. For most of what a small business tracks, weekly is the honest answer, and the cheap one.

04 Write it in five sentences

Each sentence is one of the settings above: the rhythm, the check-in, the link to check, and no power to send or spend.

The five-sentence job
Every [DAY] at [TIME], open [THE PAGES OR SOURCES TO CHECK].
Compare each [THING YOU TRACK] to last [WEEK / MONTH]'s.
Tell me what changed, by how much, and link the page.
If nothing changed, say "nothing changed."
Don't contact anyone, and don't change anything.

Filled in: Every Monday at seven, open these three competitors' pricing pages. Compare each price to last week's. Tell me what changed, by how much, and link the page. If nothing changed, say "nothing changed." Don't contact anyone, and don't change anything.

Setting it up in Perplexity

In Computer, describe the job in plain words, or start a new automation from the Automations dashboard. Paste your five sentences as the instructions, then set the schedule or the trigger and the accounts it may use. When it asks which actions need human review, list anything that leaves the building: an email to a customer, a change to an ad budget.
05 Watch the first runs
Read the first few runs yourself. Before you start trusting the fiftieth.
Look for a check-in every run. If it stops coming, something stopped.
If it goes quiet, open its run history. Perplexity skips a run when you're out of credits, and after a few skipped runs the task pauses itself.
Check one number against its source. A sale price misread as a list price becomes next week's starting point.
The expensive mistake and the silent one are the same mistake, seen a few weeks apart.

Sources

Perplexity: Computer adds Automations for ongoing work Perplexity Help Center: Scheduled Tasks in Computer Perplexity Help Center: Perplexity Tasks vs. Computer scheduled tasks Karo Zieminski: Perplexity Computer pricing, credits and real costs Karo Zieminski: How to save credits in Perplexity Computer
Mathew's LibraryLibrary card
Free access

Keep reading free with your library card

One email opens this template and all 86 resources in Mathew's library. No account, no password.

It opens right here, and a copy goes to your inbox. You'll also get The Operator Notes. Unsubscribe in one click.

Thanks
You finished it
Now do one thing

Write one weekly job with the five-sentence template, including "If nothing changed, say nothing changed," and read its first few runs yourself.

Template The Permissions Map
Up next in AI AgentsThe AI Marketing Permissions Map
Want it set up for you?Message Mathew's team

Saving works best in your phone's browser. A copy is also in your inbox.