AI-native browser with built-in summaries, command bar, and Max features.
Browser
Overview Arc is the AI native browser from The Browser Company that spent five years trying to reinvent what a browser fundamentally is — not a window to render web pages, but a workspace with a first class command bar, spatial tab organization, and AI features built into the chrome instead of bolted on afterward. By 2026, Arc's story has taken a turn: The Browser Company announced in late 2024 that Arc was moving into maintenance mode while the team shipped Dia, a new AI first browser meant to reach the mainstream Arc never quite did. Arc still runs, still gets security updates, still has a devoted power user base — but the frontier of the company's AI browser thinking now lives in Dia, and any honest 2026 review has to say so up front. At the center of Arc is an interface that rethinks the tab model: tabs live in a left sidebar, organized into Spaces (contexts), with a command bar as the primary navigation surface. Layered on top are the AI features that shipped through 2024 as "Arc Max": Ask Arc (a search bar that answers questions with cited sources), 5 Second Previews (hover a link, get an AI summary before you click), Instant Links (natural language navigation — type "GitHub issues" and land on the right page), and Tidy Tabs (auto organizing groups of related tabs). None of them are earth shattering individually. Together, they were the first credible attempt at a browser where the AI is…