24 hours in, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas browser is already surprising me – digitaltrends.com
OpenAI has finally entered the crowded world of web browsers with ChatGPT Atlas. Aside from the obvious stand-off with Chrome, which is now getting increasingly AI-friendly, Atlas goes against AI-first browsers such as Perplexity’s Comet, Dia, and Opera Neon.
For now, Atlas is exclusive to macOS, but mobile and Windows versions are in development, as well. I’ve spent 24 hours with OpenAI’s Atlas browser, and so far, it has been an impressive journey with a few hiccups. It does a few things differently from what Chrome and Safari present, without pushing a big learning curve.
The design is extremely clean and familiar, while the foundations are built atop Chromium. That means all your extensions, bookmarks, history, and log-ins will be imported seamlessly. Simply put, it should feel like home. The homepage has a unified search tool where the business begins.
The sidebar is where things get interesting. On the collapsing left pane, you get all your familiar ChatGPT controls, such as Search, Library, custom GPTs, Codex, and your chat history. On the opposite edge, you get a dedicated sidecar that opens when you tap the “Ask ChatGPT” button in the upper-right corner.
This side panel is now a staple across Chrome, Edge, Comet, Dia, and Opera Neon. Think of it as a collapsible tab where the AI chatbot can answer your questions, conduct background research, and more — without having to open another tab. It’s a neat way to avoid clutter.
On the home page, you tap on the “+” button in the search field to access all the core ChatGPT modes, such as Canvas, Deep Research, and Image Creation. The more notable additions are browser memory and agent mode. Browser memory is the secret sauce of ChatGPT Atlas.
Think of it as history, one where all your search queries, work, and chats pertaining to a certain topic or website are clustered together. So, let’s say I have a vague memory of an article that talks about turning cement into a power source, but I don’t quite remember the website or the headline. I can simply type the vague recollection of it, and Atlas will find it.
You don’t have to do a keyword-specific hunt in the history section of a typical browser. Alternatively, you can also check a log of all activity on a certain website. By default, it will also look into your past chat history and pull those logs up, as well, and not just browsing history.
It’s intrusive, but thankfully, you can separately disable the toggles for referencing chat and browsing memory. You can clear all browsing memory, too. But to clear chat history, you have to visit the data control dashboard, or delete it from your ChatGPT web or mobile dashboard, as long as you are signed in with the same account.
What stood out for me was familiarity. In Dia, as you type your query, the universal search bar switches between Google and Chat mode automatically. In Comet, you get results the same way you see in Perplexity, as an answering engine. In ChatGPT Atlas, the results appear across five dedicated categories, similar to the classic Google Search experience.
The home is where you get ChatGPT’s answers. Next to it is the Search format (similar to the traditional Google Search view), sitting alongside images, videos, and the news coverage page. Atlas doesn’t alienate you entirely from the vanilla internet search experience, but still offers a unique experience of its own courtesy of ChatGPT. That’s a huge victory, especially for early adopters, and it’s something no AI browser has managed to serve so far.
OpenAI’s Atlas pulls off a few tricks that its rival AI browsers can’t. For example, it turns the cursor into an access point for quick assistance. Broadly, the premise is similar to Writing Tools that arrived in Apple Intelligence.
Let’s say you’re writing a report and want to do a quick fact verification or background check, something that would require opening another browser tab. With the always-on ChatGPT cursor, you can simply click on the green dot, expand it into a text bubble, and shoot your query to get the answers.
It also works in any open text field, irrespective of where you are typing. Aside from quick research, it also helps you rewrite or compose written material on the fly. It may feel somewhat repetitive because you can do the same in the ChatGPT sidecar that is always a click away.
I think the actionable cursor is there for scenarios where you are working across multiple app windows in split-screen mode. And in those scenarios, opening the ChatGPT sidebar will only cramp up the working (or viewing area) in the active Atlas window. It’s a thoughtful addition, something I haven’t seen in other mainstream AI browsers such as Dia and Comet.
Next, we have another marquee feature called Agent Mode, which can handle tasks autonomously on your behalf. For the sake of privacy, ChatGPT Atlas offers the flexibility of visiting websites and completing tasks autonomously in both logged-in and logged-out modes. Now, from the get-go, for websites that require a login each time before you even begin interacting with them, Agent Mode may not work.
I pushed the prompt (in the image below) and the AI agent followed it pretty accurately, finally landing at the checkout page on Amazon’s website. It matched my criteria of finding a screen protector with an anti-glare surface for the iPhone 17 Pro, and selected the option that delivered within the specified date, with regard to the location it picked from my browser preference.
Depending on the complexity of the task at hand, it can take more time. That’s because the Agent apes the human steps of visiting a website, finding a product, clicking on it to check if it meets the criteria, going back, and then launching a fresh search for the next item. But the potential of agent mode runs deeper.
For example, I wanted to quickly read the findings of cybersecurity companies and a few research papers that discuss the risks of agentic web browsers. I asked the AI agent in Atlas to do that, with a brief summary and source links tagging along. The whole task was finished in roughly two minutes, but if I asked it to launch a Deep Research request, it would take 10 minutes or more to create a comprehensive report.
Alternatively, if I went to Google Search, I would likely not find the best resources because of Google’s ranking algorithms for search results. So, it’s likely that I would be on a wild goose chase to find the articles and research papers I needed. In a nutshell, Agent Mode for search is the quicker and more precise stop-gap solution between an unpredictable Google Search and a lengthy Deep Research report.
Comparatively, it is slower than the Agent Mode in Comet. Perplexity’s browser was much faster at ordering groceries from Amazon, looking up hotel rooms, and finding car rentals. I asked both browsers to look up the most recent embargo agreements in my Gmail inbox. Comet pulled a list in roughly 15 seconds, while Agent Mode took four minutes.
Another benefit of Comet is that it lets you pick between the latest Claude, Grok, Gemini, and GPT models, in addition to the in-house Sonar model. In Atlas, your only choice is GPT-series AI models. To Atlas’ credit, it lets you take over at any stage, and for sensitive tasks such as looking at your inbox or calendar, the agent mode works only when you are actively looking at the tab. For less mundane agentic tasks, you can let them happen in the background.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas browser is a promising start, but it’s also missing a handful of features, especially when compared against the likes of Dia and Comet. But they also offer a convenience that isn’t available on Atlas. That missing capability is multi-tab awareness.
In the other two, you can simply use an “@” shortcut in the chatbot sidecar and pull information from all the selected tabs. For example, if you have a dozen Amazon tabs to shop for a washing machine, you can combine the product details from all the tabs, create a comparison table, and find all the information neatly cataloged to help you make the right decision.
Multi-tab actions are not only helpful for shopping and booking vacations, but also for research and narrowing down the information pool. Another crucial miss is the system of skills, or shortcuts. These shortcuts, which can be created using simple natural language commands, help automate tasks.
ChatGPT Atlas somewhat makes up for it with custom GPTs, which are created with the same ease as skills in Dia and shortcuts in Comet. There’s even a dedicated store where you can find useful custom GPTS. But there’s a big difference.
Custom GPTs don’t work in the same tab, and they also can’t be summoned in the ChatGPT side panel. Shortcuts and skills in the rival AI browsers work in the same tab — either in the universal search bar or the AI assistant side panel. This makes it much easier to work on a webpage.
Overall, ChatGPT Atlas is a solid start in the right direction. It has a clean UI, snappy interactions, and plenty of features — all built around the ChatGPT experience. I’m sure it will evolve faster and fix papercuts at a rapid pace. ChatGPT Altas also has exposure to a much wider user base than Perplexity’s Comet, so it has that benefit, as well. All that brings us to the big question, especially in the light of AI browser risks flagged by cybersecurity experts and privacy advocates:
AI companies are hungry for data. Will you trust your personal information and professional web activity with an AI company that is currently scraping the bottom of the barrel for more data? Or will you wait for Google or Safari to catch up?
Think ChatGPT is not doing enough for you? Well, the AI chatbot is getting a new feature that will work overnight and deliver a personalized update each morning. They could be tips for work, fresh ideas, recipes, and more. In a nutshell, it will take a look at your ChatGPT history and act like a secretary, ready to catch you up on the day ahead as soon as your eyes open.
What’s the big picture?
OpenAI is eying a bunch of new features for ChatGPT users that will be rolled out in the coming weeks, but you might want to start saving up for them. OpenAI chief Sam Altman says the upcoming features are going to be pretty intensive on the computing resources, and as such, they could cost a pretty penny, both in terms of subscriptions as well as standalone fees.
The big picture
“Explain it to me like a fifth grader.” This, or a variation of this prompt, often appears in social media circles discussing the benefits of AI at explaining complex topics in the simplest way possible. It’s one of the best examples of AI usage in the education sector, as well. But as per experts, you don’t want to fully rely on AI tools such as ChatGPT to summarize scientific research and papers.
What’s the big picture?
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