We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
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Bring ChatGPT with you across the web for instant answers, smarter suggestions, and help with tasks—all with privacy settings you can control.
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.
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. Other than that, it's really just ChatGPT in the browser.
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".
Now this is a browser after all, right? Well, when looking at it as one of the best browsers on the market, it feels like you're using a browser that's still in alpha (not even yet beta).
When comparing it to the other agentic browsers in the space, e.g. Dia and Comet, Comet just feels way more fleshed out and refined in many of the micro interactions, interacting with extensions, bookmarks, you know, all the things that make a browser feel like a browser.
So Comet browser feels more like it's in beta, so a generation or so ahead of Atlas browser.
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.
This is where we'd recommend also giving Comet a shot, especially if you don't have a paid ChatGPT account already, because many of the AI agent features that Comet also has, are readily available to free users.
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.
Shift is the desktop app for streamlining and collaborating across accounts and workflows.
Shift is a tool that I've tried incredibly hard to like over the past 7+ years. The day I first found it, I was so stoked with it, until learning that it didn't have all of the Chromium extension support.
They've since made major strides on that front and have most extensions now supported, but it's beginning to feel a bit like a relic from the past, and pales in comparison to that of the more recent entrants into the space like Arc Browser and SigmaOS. In-fact, comparing Shift alongside Sidekick Browser and you'll be sure to confuse them with one another.
I just have a tough time recommending them at this point, they really just allow for your favorite apps to be pinned on the sidebar and easy account switching with some quick action features.
They'd like to focus on the productivity users, but we feel like you can get most of the positives of Shift in your existing browser by utilizing a tool like Workona or Toby.
If you're unwilling to install a new browser, stopping to use your beloved Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, well, you'd be hard-pressed to even give this browser a shot. We just don't feel like it innovates enough to actually take over your primary browser replacement, especially when looking at Shift vs Arc Browser for example.
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