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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT browser, Atlas, is here.
- It’s available for macOS first starting today.
- The browser offers several features to rival Chrome and Gemini.
OpenAI has finally released its long-awaited AI browser: ChatGPT Atlas.
On Tuesday morning, the company announced its then-forthcoming 10 a.m PT/1p.m. ET livestream with an X post depicting a series of browser tabs.
The title of the livestream link gave it away before the announcement even dropped, though the browser had already been rumored for months. ChatGPT Atlas joins an increasingly crowded slate of AI browsers: there’s Perplexity’s Comet, which it made free for all earlier this month, as well as Dia, which is also free, and, of course, Google Chrome, which recently got Gemini by default.
Here’s everything ChatGPT Atlas offers and who gets it first.
Chat anywhere across the web
Atlas integrates ChatGPT with your every search and tab. No more copying and pasting between tabs — if you turn it on, ChatGPT will be accessible on any page you have open in Atlas and will use the context of that page to answer queries.
During the livestream, the OpenAI team described Atlas as an AI browser built around ChatGPT, the goal being to allow users to speak with their browser in a way traditional browsers don’t offer. In the upper right corner, you can click an “Ask ChatGPT” button at any time to open up the query window.
In a demo, OpenAI showed a few uses for this higher level of integration: you can edit an email using ChatGPT directly in your Gmail drafts (a direct punch at Google Gemini), have the chatbot summarize a Slack channel if you’ve been viewing it in the browser, or ask it to analyze your Github repo.
Interface options
Product Lead Adam Fry noted that Atlas “should feel very familiar” to other browsers in that it has your standard tabs, bookmarks, and password autofilling capabilities. The interface is also reminiscent of ChatGPT’s, with a model picker button at the top left and a sidebar showing your chat history.
If you’re querying ChatGPT in Atlas, once you click a link, Atlas will slide your ChatGPT chat window over to the right so you can view it alongside the web page — a feature OpenAI called “side chat.”
When you conduct a search in ChatGPT, Atlas gives you multiple interface options to view the results in and toggle between: a classic ChatGPT results page, a traditional search engine list, a series of image tiles, a list of videos, or a series of news stories.
ChatGPT Atlas finding a new release.
Screenshot by Radhika Rajkumar/ZDNET
Browser Memory
OpenAI said Atlas leverages ChatGPT’s memory functions, originally launched in April, to contextualize your queries and anticipate what you may be looking for.
In one demo, Ryan O’Rouke showed how ChatGPT Memory can help if you’ve forgotten the name of a Google Doc you need or an article you didn’t finish reading. He described what he was looking for in the search bar, and ChatGPT used its memories of his browser history to find the doc in question.
Screenshot by Radhika Rajkumar/ZDNET
OpenAI emphasized how, with access to memory, ChatGPT can personalize your Atlas homescreen using the context of your web history. You’ll see search suggestions appear under the search bar in the center of the screen.
“The more you use Atlas, the better these suggestions get,” Fry explained.
Agent Mode
This feature, which is in preview, puts ChatGPT Agent directly in the browser. Users can select Agent Mode from the bottom left of the side chat, and it will use your browser for you and even take action based on the permissions you’ve set for it.
In a demo, OpenAI told Agent Mode to assign tasks to team members for a project, and it began using the cursor to take action. In another example, Agent Mode scaled a recipe grocery list for a larger number of people and then ordered the groceries for them via Instacart autonomously, stopping right before hitting checkout so that the demoer could approve and finalize the order himself.
Agent Mode is only available to Plus and Pro users.
Privacy
Agent Mode can run these tasks in the background while you use other tabs or even leave your computer. OpenAI noted during the livestream that you can take control over what Agent Mode is doing at any time, and it’s restricted to what’s in your tabs — it can’t access or act on anything else on your computer. You can also decide tab by tab whether Agent is logged in or out.
As for Browser Memory, as is already standard in ChatGPT, you can turn off the feature or open an incognito tab if you’d prefer not to have ChatGPT remember your browser history.
How to try it
ChatGPT Atlas is available globally starting today for macOS users, but access for Windows, iOS, and Android users is coming soon. Mac users can download the browser here.
