OpenAI launched its third consumer product and first artificial intelligence (AI) browser on Tuesday. The browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, was late to the market, lagging behind the browser company’s Dia browser and Perplexity’s Comet browser. It also follows pages from their playbook, with features like a sidebar assistant, a homepage reminiscent of a chatbot interface, and agent functionality. All three browsers are Chromium-based browsers, which means the basic functionality remains the same.
The combination of all these factors puts ChatGPT Atlas in a tricky position, as it must compete with existing products and user base. While it does have the tag of a bigger brand, is that all the GPT-5-powered (or GPT-4o after you use up your tokens in the free tier) AI browser has to offer? Here are our first impressions of OpenAI’s first foray into the browser.
ChatGPT Atlas: Design and User Interface
ChatGPT Atlas is currently only available on macOS, and like other AI applications, it features a minimalist design. The browser’s default color scheme is black and white, which immediately reminds users of ChatGPT. It should be, because the home page is essentially just the ChatGPT interface, complete with a side panel of recent conversations, a text box, and a centrally placed OpenAI logo.
The rest of the browser follows the macOS design language, with app shortcuts in the top left corner and new tabs represented by a rounded rectangle and a plus icon. The user interface (UI) does change a bit after you type (or speak) a query, but the basic design remains the same.
ChatGPT Atlas Home Tab
Unlike ChatGPT, typing a query here will take you to a new page. Although the URL is “chatgpt.com”, the user interface is a little different. There are five different icons at the top – Home, Web Search, Images, Videos, and News. Apart from the home tab, the functionality is the same as the name suggests.
The Home tab is essentially the one-on-one AI-human interaction you get in ChatGPT. However, there are some subtle changes. Once responses start, you’ll see the URLs most relevant to your query. Next are a few images of the query subject. Then, a typical AI-generated response begins, and finally, the AI asks a follow-up question.
ChatGPT Atlas features and limitations
Before we discuss these features, it should be noted that I did not test the “Browser Memory” feature. Since it’s essentially a personalization tool that requires a longer period of browser use to see the impact, it doesn’t live up to the utility of first impression stories. We also weren’t able to test the proxy feature, as that’s reserved for paid subscribers.
Interestingly, if you pose a query to ChatGPT Atlas and click on the web search tab, it will show you search results similar to those of any typical search engine. However, I was surprised to find that you can’t open multiple pages here. There are about 10-15 results per page and that’s it. I’m also not sure how OpenAI ranks these pages, but the fact that I’m limited to a small number of options makes the web search functionality unusable.
ChatGPT Atlas News Tab
The Images, Videos, and News tabs also suffer from the same issue. Maybe the idea here is to trust the AI and it will present the best results, but in my brief testing, that’s not what I observed. Most of the results that surfaced were so closely related to keywords that it felt like I was being influenced by a poorly designed website search bar that didn’t do much beyond surface-level sorting.
But you can still overlook this glaring drawback, since it’s essentially a browser, and its home screen experience isn’t a primary feature. Just stick to Google searches.
Speaking of hero features, Sidebar Assistant is powered by the same AI model as your ChatGPT account. It can perform basic tasks such as summarizing web pages, answering queries about content, and even providing alternative viewpoints. The response was good enough and helpful for most parts.
ChatGPT Atlas Tips and Suggestions
The reason I know the AI assistant can do these things is that it lets me know by prompting suggestions that constantly change based on the page I’m currently on. This is a great inclusion for new users and those unfamiliar with AI browsers.
You can also ask the Assistant to take you to another website (even if you don’t know the URL), and it will do so as soon as it gets your permission. I tested its shopping feature by asking it to find a certain product on Amazon, and it was more or less able to do it, but it was pretty slow and I could do it in half the time. There’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.
ChatGPT Atlas shows this error message on YouTube
Finally, I tested it on YouTube to see if it could answer questions based on the video being played. At first, it refused to answer the question and cited an error message. But after asking it to summarize the video, it was able to answer some basic questions.
During these tests, I also encountered an annoying problem. After about 10 messages were sent, the Sidebar Assistant informed that the GPT-5 program limits had ended. While the user can continue to access the AI, they cannot continue the conversation on the tab.
ChatGPT Atlas’ AI assistant reaches plan limit, forcing me to start over in new tab
So it doesn’t matter whether you’re buying something during a flash sale or booking tickets to a concert that sells out quickly; once that message appears, you won’t be able to get any further help from the chatbot, even if it’s the older GPT-4o. However, if you subscribe to one of the paid plans, this issue may not bother you.
ChatGPT Atlas definitely shows a lot of promise with its fast speed, beautiful UI, and powerful AI model that powers the sidebar AI assistant; however, some issues with the basic functionality of the browser can be frustrating.
