A year ago the pitch was that you'd pay for an AI browser. That's not how it played out.
Perplexity made Comet — the full browser, agent mode included — free on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android in March 2026. [OpenAI](/entry/notebooklm-vs-chatgpt-projects-vs-claude-projects-which-for-research-2026) went the other way and killed ChatGPT Atlas outright on August 9, 2026, 292 days after launch; the agentic-browsing features are being folded into the ChatGPT desktop app and, separately, into Chrome. Dia is still alive but still Mac-only, still $20/month for Pro, and The Browser Company now belongs to [Atlassian](/entry/linear-vs-jira-vs-clickup-which-project-tracker-is-cheapest-at-10-seats).
| Cost | Platforms | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comet | free; Comet Plus $5/mo; Perplexity Pro $20 ($17 annual) | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android | shipping, actively developed |
| ChatGPT Atlas | was bundled with ChatGPT | macOS only | discontinued Aug 9, 2026 |
| Dia | free tier; Pro $20/mo | macOS only | shipping, Windows promised |
So where does that leave you? If you want an agentic browser today, Comet is the obvious answer — it's free, it's cross-platform, and it's the only one of the three that's both shipping and not tied to a single OS. Dia is worth a look if you're on a Mac and prefer its lighter, chat-alongside-the-page approach, but paying $20 for a Mac-only browser when Comet is free and does more is a hard sell. Atlas users need to migrate — export your data and move to Comet or wait for the browser features to land in the ChatGPT app.
The broader lesson: browsers need constant security maintenance, and that's expensive to sustain as a paid side product. Google can afford to put AI in Chrome for free. Perplexity decided it had to match that. OpenAI decided the standalone browser wasn't worth the upkeep. That economics isn't going to reverse.