OpenAI launches ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser with ChatGPT built in, on Tuesday. The macOS version is available globally now; Windows, iOS, and Android versions are coming soon. The launch is OpenAI’s most direct move yet against Google’s Chrome, which has more than 3 billion users.

Atlas looks like a standard browser — tabs, bookmarks, autofill — but ChatGPT sits in a side panel. A side chat answers questions about the current page, and a separate feature called “cursor chat” lets ChatGPT edit text in place. The browser also keeps “memories” of your browsing history, which ChatGPT uses to personalize responses. Incognito windows and memory settings let users manage what Atlas remembers. Agent mode, a preview at launch for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users, can carry out multi-step tasks across sites — moving data between web apps, adding recipe ingredients from a recipe page to Instacart — while showing its work and pausing for approval at checkout. OpenAI says the agent operates only within browser tabs and can’t execute code outside the browser.

During a livestream, CEO Sam Altman says the chat experience and a web browser can be a “great analogue” for how people will use the internet in the future. The event features several employees with browser pedigrees, including Ben Goodger, who previously worked on Chrome and Firefox, and Adam Fry, product lead for ChatGPT Search.

OpenAI is not first to the AI browser race. Perplexity launched Comet this summer, and Google and Microsoft have added AI features to Chrome and Edge. But Atlas arrives with ChatGPT’s 700 million weekly active users behind it. Chrome’s gravity is enormous, and early AI agents have struggled with complex tasks.