OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Atlas browser, sending Alphabet shares lower

OpenAI on Tuesday announced ChatGPT Atlas, a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser.

The company said Atlas looks and feels similar to other existing browsers, but its key differentiator is that it’s built around OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT. This means users will be able to access ChatGPT to create summaries, ask questions and complete tasks as they navigate across any page on the web.

“We think that AI represents a rare once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a livestream on Tuesday.

The launch of Atlas puts OpenAI in direct competition with rivals like Google and Perplexity AI, which are jostling to attract users and win market share with their own browser offerings. Perplexity rolled out its Comet browser for free earlier this month, and Google embedded a Gemini model within its Chrome browser in September.

Shares of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, sank about 3% following OpenAI’s announcement. 

Since ChatGPT will follow users across the web with Atlas, they won’t have to copy and paste between tabs anymore, Adam Fry, the product lead for Atlas at OpenAI, said during the livestream. Atlas is equipped with browser memory, which will help it understand users and become more personalized over time, he said. 

Atlas also has agentic capabilities, which means that ChatGPT can now take actions for users and complete tasks like book a reservations, flights or editing a document.

ChatGPT Atlas is available to macOS users worldwide, though agent mode is only available to Plus and Pro users. OpenAI said experiences for Windows, iOS and Android are coming soon.

“There’s a lot more to add, this is still early days for this project,” Altman said.

WATCH: Google adds Gemini to Chrome for all users in push to bolster AI search