ChatGPT Atlas vs Safari

ChatGPT Atlas is a Chromium-based browser built by OpenAI that feels a lot like Google Chrome, but instead of Google Search, you have the full power of ChatGPT available everywhere you go.

Think of ChatGPT Atlas as more of an upgraded UI/UX for the ChatGPT desktop app than that of a full replacement for your primary browser.

If you compare it in that way, then it's a no-brainer to install and use it instead of the ChatGPT desktop app.

For example, clicking on a link mid-chat expands the site to the left-hand-side, with chat sitting on the right. It's just a better user-experience than it popping you out to whatever default browser you have set.

From there you can easily ask additional questions about the site you're on, or even reference other open tabs along with browser history. And depending on how complex of a question you ask, their built-in AI agent mode can even pop in and start navigating and completing tasks for you.

So what is the biggest "Pro" for ChatGPT Atlas? It's that it feels like an upgraded desktop app on all fronts. It just feels "right".

Once you get used to having your full ChatGPT account everywhere you go, it can become hard to use another browser because you are always missing that personalized experience.

ChatGPT Atlas has an AI agent mode that can navigate the web on your behalf. It has ChatGPT with you everywhere (even highlight some text and tell it how you want to modify it and it'll do it inline right there).

Because it's a browser, you also have the ability to @ mention tabs to pull in added context, and it also has deep memory on what you're searching from day-to-day.

The truth is, we experienced a ton of efficiency gains at work once we started using ChatGPT Atlas. Every question gets answered faster. There’s no more copying and pasting context from your browser into a separate AI app. It feels like a constant thinking partner. Our research quality has improved, and we probably use the side chat 20 to 40 times a day.

It even has voice mode built in. It can be a little buggy at times (when it acts up we switch to Wispr Flow) but you can literally think out loud about whatever page you’re on and go deeper with AI right there.

We’re now getting work done faster and require all team members and freelancers to work within ChatGPT Atlas as part of their role with us. If you’re running a business, especially a small team, I think you’ll see output increase just by giving them this browser. Just make sure they’re on a paid account so they don’t hit limits.

While Atlas is technically free, the features that you're probably seeing teased all over social media and the marketing videos are actually primarily paid (at least for now).

To unlock their AI agent functionality, you must be on ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo) or higher. The same goes for memory and file recall (prior uploaded documents) as well.

So while Atlas is free, it's a pretty restricted version of it (although the truth is we pay for multiple ChatGPT accounts and find the value way outweighs the cost).

Do you use ChatGPT? If yes, absolutely install Atlas browser, and just treat it as more of a replacement for the ChatGPT desktop app.

In-fact, use ChatGPT for work and personal, and have 2 separate accounts? Use Atlas to login to one of them, and the ChatGPT desktop app to login to the other one, and boom! You've now got built-in account switching (sorta).

If you're not a paying user of ChatGPT, then I'd recommend you give Comet browser by Perplexity a shot if you want to experience the AI agent mode and other agentic features without purchasing a paid subscription.

Safari is Apple's web browser for that comes out-of-the-box for anyone who uses a MacBook or iPhone.

With Safari, you're not going to get anything too cutting-edge or innovative, because they, like Google Chrome are focused on stability for their 1+ billion users.

Since Apple is a hardware company at the end of the day, the whole point of Safari is that you're going to get a great cohesive experience if you're using all Apple products (Mac + iPad + iPhone).

The largest benefit to be had here, in our eyes, comes from Apple owning both the hardware and software layers. This allows them to go above and beyond with optimizations like battery life and cross-device syncing.

While they have baked in password management

We don't really see much major innovation or differentiation coming to Safari though. Why? Because this isn't Apple's core business. Not only that, but Apple has zero interest in going after the B2B and collaborative browser space. When comparing Arc Browser vs Safari, you'll see first-hand that Arc has a lot more going on in the features and differentiation space as they ultimately want to be the browser for teams and collaboration.

We do applaud Apple for adding tab groups, and allowing for them to be on the side of the browser window. There's some small similarities when comparing Safari or Brave in the recently released sidebar tab management in Brave and Arc Browser.

With Safari, you get a familiar and safe UI. It looks like a browser, it looks pretty much the same as it has the past decade, and it's relatively bland in terms of how it looks.

Safari User Interface

There's just not much to mention here, but the truth of the matter is some of this is by design. Their focus is to be stable, functional, and to let the content of the website you're currently on, shine.

This is where we can give Apple some props on the user-experience, if of course you're also using other Apple products. Take for example you visit a website on your iPhone, you get a prompt in your MacOS dock that shows a website was just opened on mobile. Want to open it up on your desktop? Simply click the Safari icon in your software dock.

In actually using the browser though, there's nothing in particular that stands out as an exceptional UX. This category in particular is where Arc shines. They have the smallest UX details, that just makes using the browser on the day-to-day so incredibly enjoyable.

Are you a huge Apple fan? Do you only care about getting the best possible battery performance on your MacBook and nothing else matters to you? Do you absolutely despise change? If so, Safari is probably fine for you.

If you're on the other hand sort of bored when looking at the existing browser market and wish you could get a bit more enjoyment and productivity out of your browser, then that's where you should definitely be giving Arc a shot.

Genuinely, give Arc a shot for a week straight as your daily driver, and I'm willing to bet you that you never come back to Safari again.

Arc Browser is genuinely what Apple could have made, had they re-thought the browser from the ground up, without all the baggage that currently exists with Safari. And for that reason, that's why we rank Arc at the top of our best browsers list. Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Apple one day acquired Arc and replaced it with Safari as the default browser for MacOS.