ChatGPT Atlas is great at providing AI-generated answers, but not so great at searching. This week, OpenAI unveiled its long-awaited AI browser, which aims to put its AI chatbot at the center of the web. The browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, enters a space already occupied by Perplexity and Google’s Gemini on Chrome. OpenAI is likely betting that putting ChatGPT at the center is enough to attract users, but the overall experience lags behind competitors so far.
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The Chromium-based ChatGPT Atlas — currently exclusive to macOS, though versions for other platforms are promised — features a minimalist interface. On the left side of the window, you’ll find a collapsible tab with your ChatGPT history. In the center is the URL bar, which also lets you search directly using ChatGPT. On the right is an “Ask ChatGPT” button, which you can tap to chat specifically about whatever site you’re currently on. For ChatGPT Plus, Business , and Pro, there’s also an “agent mode,” which can complete tasks like adding items to an online shopping cart.
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ChatGPT Atlas's home screen offers suggestions to get you started, like "Find the best restaurants near me." Over time, it fills up with some recommendations based on your browser searches. In any case, it lacks the option to see daily news and weather, as found on Microsoft Edge's home page, or the customizable "Discover" page of the Perplexity Comet browser with recent news, even if all the snippets are AI-generated.
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Once you get started with ChatGPT Atlas, the immediate problem is that ChatGPT just doesn’t feel like a good enough portal to the web. When you first type in a query, you’ll usually get an AI-generated answer from ChatGPT, after which you can choose to do things like turn your query into a classic web search with a list of relevant blue links, similar to classic Google Search. But the results aren’t always relevant.
