OpenAI has announced the launch of a new product that has been rumored for months and is another step in the company’s race for Internet dominance. ChatGPT Atlas is an AI-powered web browser that, in practice, is like have the popular chatbot accompanying you at all times while you browse and with some agentic capabilities that allow you to execute tasks on behalf of the user.
The browser is available ‘globally’ from today for macOS and ‘soon’ it will be for Windows, iOS and Android. Its use is free, but the Agent mode It will only be available to paying subscribers. ChatGPT Plus and Proas explained Sam AltmanCEO of OpenAI, in the presentation that was broadcast online.
‘The browser is already where a lot of work happens and, in some ways, where life happens. We believe that if ChatGPT becomes the central way to help you use it, you will be able to chat with a page. You can use ChatGPT to find things. You can use an agent mode with ‘touch to pay’ in the browser and many more things,’ Altman explained.
The CEO was accompanied by several OpenAI members who gave explanations about ChatGPT Atlas. Ben Goodgerformerly a member of the team that helped develop google chrome and Mozilla Firefoxalso stated that The future of browsing lies in being able to chat with the websites you visit. ‘It’s a new type of browser for the next era of the web,’ he said.
Meet our new browser—ChatGPT Atlas.
Available today on macOS: https://t.co/UFKSQXvwHTpic.twitter.com/AakZyUk2BV
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 21, 2025
The three key features of ChatGPT Atlas
Adam Fryproduct manager ChatGPT Searchexplained the three key functions of ChatGPT Atlas that differentiate it from classic browsers. ‘ChatGPT accompanies you anywhere on the web. You no longer have to copy and paste between tabs. If you are writing an email or a document with an open web, Chat will be there when you invoke it and with the context of what you are doing,’ he said. The browser has a button ‘Ask ChatGPT’ with which you can start the interaction with the chatbot on any page about its content, such as asking for a summary or whatever. Another use case that was shown was with Gmailwhere you can interact as writing assistant. When you select the text of an email, a ChatGPT icon appears next to it, which you must click to access a text box in which to enter the request.
Fry also highlighted the browser memorywhich makes it more personalized the more it is used. If you want to recover a website that has been previously visited, instead of reviewing the browsing history, you can ask the browser to reopen the page of a product that was previously viewed.
The last key function is the Agent modewith which the user can, for example, visit a website with a cooking recipe and ask ChatGPT, always present in Atlas, to purchase the ingredients.
Agent mode in Atlas completes tasks faster as you browse the web.
Available in preview for Plus, Pro, and Business users. pic.twitter.com/JvSKolLXib
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 21, 2025
ChatGPT Atlas accesses an online store, browses the product categories and fills the shopping cart with everything you need, transparently. Only at the time of payment is user interaction necessary. Other Agent mode possibilities you mentioned are book flights or restaurants.
No browser extensions
According to Reuters at the time, ChatGPT Atlas is based on Chromiumjust like Chrome, Edge, Opera or Brave. The issue of plug-ins was not discussed. or browser extensions, and while the Chromium base should make it compatible with those of the aforementioned browsers, there may not be much interest in OpenAI given that many of the functionalities they offer can be done by ChatGPT.
ChatGPT in a new format
Based on what was seen in the presentation, ChatGPT Atlas will be familiar to any user, both browsers and ChatGPT. In fact, it appears to be ChatGPT in a new format.
The home tab is that of the chatbot and The searches are carried out through the chatbot, without mentioning anything about the possibility of other search engines. If the user types the name of the website in the ChatGPT text box, the website in question will load immediately. If a search term is entered in the navigation bar, ChatGPT will load to display the answers to the search, but in a format similar to other search engines, with different results tabs for images, videos, etc.
And when a link is clicked from a search result in Atlas, by default it will show a split screen with the web page on one side and ChatGPT on the other. With Atlas, OpenAI says it seeks to offer a ‘companion’ at all timesalthough the user can disable split screen if preferred.
ChatGPT Atlas is not the only agentic browser. Companies like Perplexity or Opera They have recently launched theirs and others, such as Google and Microsoft, are working on introducing this type of capabilities in Chrome and Edge. The feeling is that OpenAI is going after Google with Atlas, offering an alternative to its browser and search engine.