Image: Opera
Perplexity just opened up its Comet browser to users beyond its paid subscription service, albeit with a lot of paywalled features. But every longstanding browser (with one notable exception) seems to be cramming “AI” into itself, and Opera never likes to be left behind. The company’s new Neon “AI” browser is now available for free. No, wait, that’s wrong. It’s available for $19.90/month. What?
Yes, Opera seems to think its users will shell out just shy of twenty bones a month to let an agentic AI program control their browsing. Some users are getting a generous offer to pay $59.90 for 9 months of access to the new build for Windows and Mac, after which it’ll cost $19.90 per month. This is an early adopter package for “Founder” access, and presumably Opera will open up access more widely later (like Perplexity has). The pricing was shared on Twitter/X and spotted by BleepingComputer.
Opera Neon claims it can organize your tabs with AI, perform tasks on your behalf on a “cloud hosted virtual computer,” generate text, images, and video, and offer chatbots that invade your tabs via OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. A lot of that stuff isn’t free, even if Opera is working as a middleman to provide these services. Paying extra also gets you a “direct line” to the developers for discussions and feature requests and possibly some invite codes.
The tab management and virtual computer stuff are the only things you can’t accomplish yourself (possibly for free) with existing tools, AI, and otherwise. So even if I were a fan of Opera—I’m not, please stop asking me to write about your blinged-out gaming browser—I don’t think I’d be enticed enough to pony up for this. In fact, seeing Opera hop into the AI brawl only makes me appreciate my browser bestie Vivaldi all the more. The small team’s Chromium-based browser is blessedly, refreshingly free of “AI,” as its developers have made it clear that they think users want to interact with these tools on the web and on their terms.
“We don’t see AI as something that our users are asking for,” said Vivaldi’s executive Stephenson von Tetzchner on the launch of Vivaldi version 7. “I think a lot of people are reacting to force-fed AI.” So, if you’re up for some force-feeding, sign up for the Opera Neon waitlist here.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he’s the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop “battlestation” in his off hours. Michael’s previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he’s covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he’s always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.