This week, OpenAI debuted its long-discussed AI browser, which aims to put its AI chatbots at the center of the internet. A browser called ChatGPIT Atlas is entering the space already occupied by Perplexity’s Comet and Google Gemini in Chrome. OpenAI is likely betting that keeping ChatGPT front and center is enough to draw users in, but the overall experience falls short compared to rivals so far.
Chromium-based ChatGPT Atlas – Currently only for macOS, although versions for other platforms are promised – Comes with a minimalist interface. On the left side of the window, you’ll find a summary tab with your ChatGPT history. In the center is your URL bar, which also lets you search directly using ChatGPT. On the right side there is an “Ask ChatGPT” button, by clicking which you can chat specifically about whatever website you are currently on. For ChatGPIT Plus, Business and Pro members, there is also an “Agent Mode”, which can complete tasks such as adding items to an online shopping cart.
ChatGPT Atlas’ homescreen offers suggestions to get started, like “Find the best restaurants near me.” Over time, it populates with some recommendations based on what you’ve searched for in the browser, though it wasn’t always clear how – when I asked ChatGPT for ideas several times the browser showed me a suggested search for Halloween costume recommendations, but nothing restaurant-related ever came up, despite doing multiple searches for restaurants. Either way, I found myself losing the option to view the daily news stories and weather found on the Microsoft Edge homepage, or view the Perplexity Comet browser’s customizable “Discover” page with recent news, even if all of its snippets are AI-generated (which raises a number of questions).
once you to do Getting started with ChatGPT Atlas, the immediately obvious problem is that ChatGPT doesn’t feel like an adequate portal to the web. When you first type a query, you’ll usually get an AI-generated response from ChatGPT, after which you can choose to do things like turn your query into a classic web search with a list of related blue links, similar to a classic Google search. But results are not always relevant. For example, when I searched for “news near me,” ChatGPT provided an AI-generated response with stories related to my area. But the search results page gave me links to local news websites for the San Francisco Bay Area; Little Rock, Arkansas; Salt Lake City, Utah; And other places where I don’t live.
If you’re looking for businesses or attractions in a specific area, like Google, ChatGPAT Atlas will display a map with a brief description of each location and its hours, price range, and rating. But you can’t click on reviews or even see where they come from. This puts OpenAI at a disadvantage compared to Comet, which features TripAdvisor integration, which allows you to see more detailed information about a location, images, and AI-summarized reviews.
Searches for other topics, such as “how to apply fertilizer to orchids” or “best restaurants in Las Vegas”, yield more relevant results across the web. But ChatGPT Atlas will only show you 10 links per query, with no option to include more results than that. When you enter a new question in the same chat, ChatGPT Atlas will aggregate the results, allowing you to scroll up and down the page to see all the links related to your chat. It’s not easy to see the division between topics, as ChatGPT Atlas divides it with a barely visible gray line and text that explains what you’ve searched for.
OpenAI will also save your searches in the same place as your ChatGPIT conversations, so things can quickly get disorganized if you want to revisit certain chats from the chatbot’s standalone app. The limited search experience is probably why ChatGPT Atlas includes a link to Google in the top-right corner of every search results page.
In addition to the new Web Search tab, ChatGPT Atlas displays options to search images, videos, and news stories. There is also a “Browser Memories” feature within ChatGPT Atlas, which compiles chat responses and suggestions to your recent questions. ChatGPT Atlas also has the ability to group tabs for you as well as reorder and close tabs for you.
Of course, the big promise of AI browsers isn’t just that they’ll let you find things online, but that they can help you contextualize and navigate what you’re looking for. When you arrive at a webpage with the ChatGPT Atlas, you can highlight text and right-click to ask ChatGPT for more information about a specific snippet. you can also open ask chatgpt Tab at the upper-right side of the browser to ask questions about what you’re reading, or to bring up related information without opening another tab. It’s basically a ChatGPT-flavored version of Gemini in Chrome and Perplexity’s AI assistant in Comet, and after a little initial testing, it appears to work too.
Agentic mode for paying users goes a step further and can perform tasks on your behalf, such as making appointments or booking trips, or helping you complete purchases. However, it will do so a little more slowly. I found that you have to manually select the “Agent Mode” button before making your request; Otherwise, ChatGPT Atlas will say that it cannot complete the task.
For my first request, I asked ChatGPAT Atlas to fill my Amazon cart with items based on my recent browsing history, and it took the chatbot a total of 10 minutes to add just three items. I watched ChatGPIT Atlas navigate Amazon’s interface and talk through various issues myself. “It appears I’ve opened a new tab, but it’s still showing ‘about:blank’, which means the page hasn’t fully loaded. I’ll give it time,” Chatgpt wrote to himself at one point. Meanwhile, Comet took about two minutes to add three items to my cart — still not fast, but more reasonable.
But ChatGPT Atlas successfully created and sent an email directly into Gmail in about 30 seconds, and created a Google Calendar event for me in the same time. It also searched for the best restaurants near me and was ready to book a reservation within minutes, but it messed up when I asked it to schedule the reservation for “next Friday.” ChatGPT Atlas has scheduled it for this Friday instead.
Given the options that already exist, ChatGPT Atlas is a slightly disappointing start for a company that wants to create a series of interconnected apps that will eventually Become an AI Operating SystemThe company has already launched apps within ChatGPTT that work directly with services like Zillow, Spotify, and Canva, as well as a way to purchase products from Walmart and Etsy using the chatbot, neither of which requires a dedicated browser. AI may be the future of search, but ChatGPAT Atlas still needs a lot of work if OpenAI wants to move people away from traditional browsers like Chrome.
