This might help explain in-part the discrepancy. Perplexity.ai[1] also says 8,200 German postal codes. I set Claude 3.5 Sonnet in the LLM settings on Perplexity but it looks like it might use a ChatGPT model for the initial search of sources? At least we can see what it is sourcing to fetch the value of 8,200. Interestingly, asking Claude 3.5 Sonnet directly at claude.ai returned 16,000.[2]
1. The first digit represents one of 10 postal regions.
2. The second digit typically represents a sub-region within that area.
3. The last three digits identify specific delivery areas or post offices.
It's worth noting that the exact number can fluctuate slightly over time due to administrative changes, urban development, or postal service reorganization. However, 16,000 is a good approximation for the total number of German postal codes.
Would you like more information about how the German postal code system works or its history?"
I felt your reply was too harsh, but after few moments I realized that I instinctively think the same I treat any output from ChatGpt as garbage until checked in other sources. So effectively, not worth looking there in the first place.
I think that it's often easier to verify an answer than to find an answer with nothing to go on, so perhaps not entirely garbage but certainly not reliable.
