Should You Use OpenAI's New Browser?
OpenAI just released ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-first browser that is already getting a lot of attention. I installed it on my Mac and tested the features, the agent capabilities, and how it stacks up against the competition. Below is a practical breakdown of what it does, what is new, where it falls short, and whether it is worth your time.
What is ChatGPT Atlas?
ChatGPT Atlas is a desktop browser based on Chromium, designed to put ChatGPT at the center of your browsing experience. As of now it is available on Mac OS for all plans, including the free plan, with no geographic restrictions. Install it, sign in with your ChatGPT account, and the new tab itself becomes a ChatGPT interface.
Key features
- Chat as the new tab: The default new tab is ChatGPT, and you can open the assistant with a single click on any page using the "ask chat here" button. The assistant can load the full page context so you do not need to copy and paste content manually.
- Browser memories: A new personalization area called "reference browser memories" automatically collects context from your browsing and saves it to your account. It acts like chat memories but sourced from your web activity.
- Agent mode: Atlas includes an agent mode, essentially a computer use agent that can operate your browser, interact with web apps, click buttons, read documents, send emails, and write to spreadsheets.
- Chromium foundation: Under the hood it is very similar to Google Chrome, but configured to be AI-first and to integrate ChatGPT features directly into the browser UI.
How Atlas compares to existing tools
On paper nothing here is totally brand new. Chrome extensions and other AI browsers have offered site-aware chat and agent-like controls since 2022. Atlas bundles these ideas into a single desktop app, which is convenient, but the novelty is mostly in packaging and the UI, not in inventing new capabilities.
That said, browser memories are unique so far. The idea of automatically collecting browsing context and saving it to your account is new, and how it is implemented will matter a lot over time.
Privacy and import behavior
" If you install this and then you decide to give all of your browser history and all of your bookmarks to OpenAI just by importing it. Hm."
When you install Atlas it prompts to import your Chrome bookmarks and history. That makes some features more useful, but it also means you are handing OpenAI a copy of your browsing data. That is something to be aware of before you import everything. There are useful upsides to having browsing context available to the assistant, but there is a clear privacy tradeoff.
Agent mode in practice
Agent mode is the feature that matters for real productivity. It is an AI that has access to your browser and accounts, can read documents, compose emails, and update spreadsheets. I tested it with a multi-step task that included:
- Reading a Google Doc and extracting context.
- Drafting an email in my Gmail account summarizing that document.
- Logging entries into an open Google Sheet to track the emails sent.
Atlas executed the task and created the draft email and the spreadsheet entries. This is the same general capability other tools offer, but it is handy to have it integrated into the desktop browser where saved passwords, cookies, and history are already available as context.
Reliability matters
One of the biggest factors in whether you will actually use these agents is reliability. If an agent runs a task and randomly fails or does something unexpected three times out of ten, it becomes more trouble than it is worth. In my tests reliability varied across tasks and across models powering the agents.
It is important to note that OpenAI did not ship a new model inside Atlas. The browser is an interface that uses the existing models. That matters when you compare Atlas to competitors that are already using models tuned for computer use.
Comparison: Atlas versus Claude extension (Sonnet 4.5)
One of the major competitors is Claude's Chrome extension, which uses the Sonnet 4.5 model. In my agentic tests the Sonnet 4.5-powered setup was consistently faster and more reliable at computer use tasks. For example:
- On a multi-app workflow, both Atlas and Claude completed the job, but Claude tended to iterate faster and recover from formatting quirks more smoothly.
- For content generation tasks routed through third-party AIs, Atlas will run tools when explicitly given the URL, while omitting the URL sometimes causes the tool chain to miss a step.
Short verdict: For computer use tasks I still prefer the Claude extension powered by Sonnet 4.5. ChatGPT Atlas is a close second and may be preferable for users who want a tightly integrated OpenAI experience on the desktop.
Examples I ran
1. Generating 100 social captions
I asked Atlas to generate 100 captions for a photo I had on my desktop and put them into a Google Sheet. Atlas populated the sheet, but the captions showed repetition and limited variety. When I explicitly routed the task through Claude by giving the Claude URL, Atlas opened Claude, pasted the prompt, and copied back a much wider range of captions. The practical tip here is to be explicit about tool URLs when you want Atlas to use external AI services reliably.
2. Taking an e-learning quiz
We tested both agents on a final quiz for an advanced prompting course. The results were telling:
- Both Atlas and the Claude extension achieved effectively perfect scores on the quiz.
- Claude completed the quiz about 10 times faster than Atlas in my test runs.
- Atlas took longer and in one run got stuck in a loop because I asked it to guarantee 100 percent correctness; that caused it to over-iterate in search of a solution.
This experiment highlights a broader issue. Agents can complete quizzes and courses automatically, which means many online certifications can be farmed by AI. That undermines the value of low-stakes certifications and should make organizations rethink how they assess skills.
Pros and cons summary
Pros
- Chat at the center of the browsing experience makes some workflows faster and more natural.
- Agent mode can automate multi-step tasks across web apps, which is a real productivity boost when it works.
- Browser memories could become a powerful way to surface personal context over time.
- Available on Mac for all account tiers, no regional lockout as of release.
Cons
- Privacy tradeoffs when importing bookmarks and browsing history into an OpenAI account.
- Not a new model. Atlas uses existing models, so raw capability depends on the underlying model that OpenAI assigns.
- Reliability varies. Some tasks work great, others lag behind competitors powered by models optimized for computer use.
- Many features are "nice to have" rather than must-have. Summarizing a page with a click is convenient but not necessarily a behavior changer.
Final thoughts
ChatGPT Atlas is an interesting release. It pulls together ideas we have already seen into a neat, AI-first desktop browser. The agent features are practical and can save real time, especially for spreadsheet and content manipulation tasks. The browser memories idea is unique and worth watching as it matures.
That said, this is not a game changer yet. For agentic tasks I still lean toward the Claude extension with Sonnet 4.5 because of speed and reliability. Atlas is a strong second and may be more convenient for users who prefer OpenAI's ecosystem, but be mindful of the data you import. You are effectively sharing your browsing history and bookmarks when you allow the import.
If you are curious and use a Mac, it is worth trying out. Keep a close eye on privacy settings, be explicit about which tools you want the agent to use, and expect Atlas to improve over time as OpenAI adds features and potentially new models tailored for browser automation.