I Tested Four Major AI-Powered Browsers, and Here’s What I Found.

Since the days of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, you’ve always had a choice of internet browsers, but now we need to turn our attention to a whole new generation of software: AI-powered browsers. In these browsers, AI models play a vital role, even more so than in integrations like Gemini in Chrome or Copilot in Edge.

These browsers offer AI-powered search, answers to virtually any question you can ask, and even AI-powered agent management, allowing the browser to navigate web pages and perform simple tasks autonomously. A future where we no longer have to manually fill out web forms or compare prices for sixteen different flights is closer than you think.

Or not? To assess the current state of AI-powered browsers available today, I tested four of them: Perplexity Comet, Opera Neon, ChatGPT Atlas, and Dai (from the creators of the Arc browser ). All of these programs are still in development, but here’s what you can do with them now and how they compare.

The Pros and Cons of AI Browsing

Before we dive into the details of specific browsers, it’s worth mentioning some pros and cons. The main advantage, at least in theory, is more useful AI support: some types of web search can be successfully performed by an AI bot (if you’re careful about imprecision ), and there are many tedious and time-consuming web browsing tasks that can be delegated to an AI agent.

For example, you could choose something for dinner and ask your AI-powered browser to order all the ingredients —it’ll save you a ton of time. Or maybe you could ask your AI-powered browser to display all the job postings you viewed last week, sorted by relevance, or compare the best gaming keyboards on Amazon.

In theory, you could delegate a significant portion of the work to your AI-powered browser, but of course, giving the browser more control comes with security and privacy concerns. We’ve already seen examples of hackers injecting malicious code into websites to gain control of AI agents and potentially access your data and accounts.

Moreover, these browsers typically remember all your actions , so you can return to a task later if necessary. This isn’t much different from how standard browsers work, and tracking can be disabled, but this is a potential problem for AI-powered browsers: you’re trusting another company and another piece of software to look after the privacy of your browsing data and handle it with care.

Here are some general considerations to keep in mind when choosing AI-powered browsers. Here’s what I discovered after digging a bit deeper into the currently available options.

Comet of Perplexity

• Perplexity Comet is available for Windows and macOS.

• Clean and polished look

• An AI agent capable of performing basic functions

What’s certain about Comet is that it’s now cheaper than before: previously, to try it, you had to subscribe to Perplexity Max for $200 per month. Now, anyone can do that —you don’t even need a Perplexity account—but if you’re not a subscriber, there are restrictions on using the AI.

Several interesting features immediately catch the eye: an article summary and a voice mode, both available in the toolbar. These are great for when reading full articles and typing on a keyboard seems too tedious, and features like AI-powered search and writing assistance are just a click away.

The Perplexity Assistant chatbot is always available in the sidebar or a new tab, ready to help. I managed to get it to reply to a Gmail message—it even hit the reply button. I also used the AI ​​agent to create a note in Google Keep with three motivational quotes inside. Looks like I can do a lot.

As for the agent AI, Comet displays the steps it takes to complete your task in the assistant window. Even the simplest web interfaces can occasionally glitch, but it seems to have a good understanding of how to fix any issues that arise and understands what’s happening on the screen.

Opera Neon

• Opera Neon is available for Windows and macOS.

• A wide range of AI capabilities

• There is no free tier for AI features

Unlike the other browsers on this list, Opera Neon isn’t yet available to the general public, but you can sign up for early access. After that, you’ll pay $20 per month for advanced AI features based on OpenAI and Google models (Opera says it switches between them as needed).

Opera clearly knows what it’s doing when it comes to browsers, and familiar Opera innovations are present, such as sidebar integration for your chat apps. As for AI, there are plenty of features to experiment with, from article summaries and image generation to deep learning and code generation.

While the subscription price might be a bit daunting, you get a lot for your money. The browser features artificial intelligence that performs various actions, though with mixed results: Opera Neon managed to create my inspirational note in Google Keep upon request, but it didn’t save correctly. When I complained, the app tried to fix the situation, but again couldn’t figure out what to do to save the note.

The browser was better at evaluating the content of individual pages and was able to automatically provide me with a summary of the cheapest flights between two destinations for the next month. I’d say the AI ​​still needs some work (which is probably why this is a limited preview), but it scores highly for its versatility and functionality.

ChatGPT Atlas

• ChatGPT Atlas is available for macOS

• Adheres to the basics of viewing

• Advanced Agent AI Interface

OpenAI has now joined the AI-powered browser crowd, and ChatGPT Atlas takes a minimalist approach to browser design: essentially, it’s just the bare essentials in terms of on-screen hardware, with a few quick settings links and an “Ask ChatGPT” button in the corner you can press when you need help from the AI.

ChatGPT in Atlas does almost everything that other browsers do, though I liked how it highlights Lifehacker stories “matching my interests” on the main page—one of the benefits of giving the bot access to your entire chat history, despite all the privacy concerns. Like the main ChatGPT app, you can use the browser for free, but with higher limits if you subscribe.

Atlas differs from the main ChatGPT in its agent-based AI capabilities: ChatGPT can intervene and perform actions on your behalf. In this regard, it’s the most advanced of the browsers I’ve tested—it reliably identifies relevant elements on websites, accurately follows your instructions, and animates its actions so you can see what’s happening. You can also intervene and interrupt the process at any time.

It still makes mistakes, though: while it successfully created my motivational quotes note in Google Keep, it took it a few tries to format it, and I suspect it would have been quicker for me to do it myself.

Give

• Dia is available for macOS

• Improved AI chat interface

• Deep analysis works well

Dia is a bit different from the other browsers I’ve tried here in that it’s heavily built on artificial intelligence. In its initial release, it lacked many traditional browser features, though it has recently begun to incorporate some elements from its predecessor, Arc, including pinned tabs and favorites.

The idea is that you’ll be able to use AI to “talk to your tabs”—summarize text, compare elements, ask questions about what’s on the screen, generate new text when needed, and much more. What you won’t encounter (yet) is agent-based AI, which means Dia won’t be able to visit websites and perform actions for you.

However, it’s especially good for learning: you can quickly transform videos and essays into bulleted lists or flashcards, for example. I also like how Dia can summarize topics and extract information from Gmail: even if the app can’t click links directly, it can deeply explore websites and web apps and extract what you need.

You also get Dia Skills —ready-to-use tools for fact-checking, choosing clothes to match your style, creating YouTube video transcripts, and finding content to watch on streaming services. This is a great early prototype of how AI can help understand the entire internet.

The Future of AI Browsing

In my testing, all of these browsers performed well in different ways: Comet with its AI integration into the interface, Neon with its wide range of features, Atlas with its powerful agent mode, and Dia with its deep understanding of websites and their data. This is undoubtedly the direction all browsers will move in the future, to a greater or lesser extent.

How will this change your internet experience? Personally, I would never let AI write anything for me—even notes or emails—and I don’t want to delegate tasks like booking hotel rooms or creating and formatting documents to AI. I’m concerned about AI making poor choices and serious errors, so I haven’t put these tools through too much testing (and that’s before we even get into sensitive privacy issues).

AI can be useful (though not infallible) for search and summarization, and this is where I believe these browsers show the most promise—they take tasks that AI already does well and integrate them more closely with web processes. Fully automated AI-powered browsing may be possible someday, but based on what these browsers can do right now, it’s still a long way off.

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