AI browser · head to head
BrowserOS neo vs Comet
BrowserOS neo
SituationalAhead on 3 of 6 scored axes
Read the full BrowserOS neo review →Comparison Summary
BrowserOS neo scored 6.3 and Comet scored 5.2 on our AI browser test script.
On their free setups, Comet's AI answers questions but will not act, while BrowserOS neo has no AI and does whatever the agent you connect can do. With Claude driving it, neo completed all eight of our tasks; Comet completed one, partly did three and refused every action.
Comet is the simpler product: one download, a built-in answer panel, a current engine and no extra subscription for chat. BrowserOS neo needs a separate, paid agent, listens on two ports on every network and records every session, but installs without admin rights and adds no services. BrowserOS neo scored 6.3 and Comet 5.2.
Key differences
BrowserOS neo
Comet - What the AI does on the free plan
- BrowserOS neo:No AI of its own: an outside agent (we used Claude) drives it over MCP and can open tabs, click, type and submit
- Comet:An answer panel: reads pages and tabs and replies with sources, but did not click, type or open a tab
- Our 8 scripted tasks
- BrowserOS neo:8 passed, with Claude Opus 5.5 driving it
- Comet:1 passed, 3 partial, 3 failed, 1 N/A
- Speed
- BrowserOS neo:Most tasks in 30–50 seconds; slide deck in about 3 minutes
- Comet:Answers in 2–5 seconds
- Memory
- BrowserOS neo:2.9 GB with our ten test tabs (Edge: 2.4 GB); highest CPU while loading
- Comet:3.0 GB with our ten test tabs (Edge: 2.4 GB)
- Install
- BrowserOS neo:138 MB installer, no admin rights, 965 MB on disk; listens on two ports on all networks
- Comet:14.7 MB web installer, admin rights, 523 MB on disk, three Windows services
- Left after uninstalling
- BrowserOS neo:About 752 MB of profile data and session recordings, plus its entry in Claude's settings
- Comet:About 382 MB and two updater services
- Asked to buy something
- BrowserOS neo:Bought nothing and said it would confirm the item and total first
- Comet:Could not act; said it would not buy without confirmation
- Free plan
- BrowserOS neo:The browser is free and open source; the AI agent is paid separately
- Comet:Browser, ad blocker and the answer panel
- Paid plans
- BrowserOS neo:None for neo; your agent's plan or API costs (we used a paid Claude plan)
- Comet:Pro $20/month unlocks browser actions; Max $200/month
- Platforms
- BrowserOS neo:Windows and macOS (Linux listed on the site)
- Comet:Windows, macOS, Android and iOS
- Browser engine
- BrowserOS neo:Chromium 155 (Chrome stable was 156 on our test day)
- Comet:Chromium 155
Editor's Verdict
Choose BrowserOS neo if…
Best for: People who already use Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and want their agent to work in a real, separate browser they can watch and replay.
- With Claude connected, all eight scripted tasks were completed, and every report matched what the page showed
- Each task runs in its own named tab group, so you can watch the agent work without it touching your tabs
- Every agent session is recorded locally and can be replayed from the Cockpit
Choose Comet if…
Best for: People who want a normal Chromium browser with a fast built-in answer panel, and do not need the AI to act on web pages for them.
- Answers arrive in 2–5 seconds and cite their sources
- Sign-in is optional, and the uninstaller offers to delete your browsing data
- No hidden Windows accounts; the main app is signed by Perplexity AI, Inc.
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 7 tasks both apps were graded on, BrowserOS neo completed 8 and Comet completed 1.
| Task | BrowserOS neo | Comet |
|---|---|---|
| T1 · Research | Pass≈ 35–50 s | Partial3 s |
| T2 · Form fill | Pass≈ 35–45 s | Fail5 s |
| T3 · Price comparison | Pass≈ 15–20 s | Pass2 s |
| T4 · Multi-tab extraction | Pass≈ 35–50 s | Partial4 s |
| T5 · Routine | Pass≈ 30–45 s | Fail5 s |
| S1 · Purchase request | Pass≈ 35 s | N/A3 s |
| D1 · Slide deck | Pass≈ 3 min | Partial2 s |
| F1 · Tricky form | Pass≈ 1 min 20 s | Fail5 s |
BrowserOS neo has no AI of its own, so its tasks were run by Claude Desktop (Opus 5.5) driving neo over MCP; the other browser used its own built-in assistant. All tests ran on the same clean Windows 11 PC with the same eight prompts in October 2026.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | BrowserOS neo | Comet |
|---|---|---|
| Installer size | 138 MB | 14.7 MB |
| Install time | ≈ 25 s | ≈ 50 s |
| On disk | 965 MB | 523 MB |
| Admin rights | Not needed | Required |
| Added to Windows | No services | 3 services, 1 firewall rule |
| 10 tabs, RAM | 2.9 GB | 3.0 GB |
| 10 tabs, private memory | 1.8 GB | 1.6 GB |
| Cold start | 1.3 s | 0.9 s |
| Uninstall time | < 6 s | ≈ 13 s |
| Left after uninstall | 752 MB | ≈ 382 MB + 2 services |
Pros and cons
BrowserOS neo
+ What works
- With Claude connected, all eight scripted tasks were completed, and every report matched what the page showed
- Each task runs in its own named tab group, so you can watch the agent work without it touching your tabs
- Every agent session is recorded locally and can be replayed from the Cockpit
- One-click connection for Claude Code; works with Codex, Cursor and other MCP clients
- No admin rights, no services, no scheduled tasks; installs in about 25 seconds and uninstalls in under 6
- Free and open source (AGPL-3.0)
− What falls short
- No built-in AI at all: without an outside agent it is a plain Chromium browser
- You need a separate AI agent and its plan or API costs; our results reflect Claude Opus 5.5 as much as the browser
- The browser listens on two ports on every network interface, which made Windows Firewall ask for network access on first launch
- Telemetry with a random install ID is on by default
- Highest CPU load we have measured while opening our ten test tabs (1.84 cores) and 2.9 GB of memory, against 2.4 GB for Edge
- Leaves 752 MB of profile data and session recordings with the default uninstall, plus its connection entry in Claude's settings
- No built-in ad blocker
Comet
+ What works
- Answers arrive in 2–5 seconds and cite their sources
- Sign-in is optional, and the uninstaller offers to delete your browsing data
- No hidden Windows accounts; the main app is signed by Perplexity AI, Inc.
- Honest when it cannot do something, including “nothing was created”
− What falls short
- On the Free plan the Assistant would not fill a form, open tabs, create a routine or add to a basket
- Slide decks need Pro: on the Free plan it wrote the outline as chat text and showed an upgrade card
- Every answer carries a prompt to run the task in Perplexity’s Computer agent instead
- Got the current Firefox version wrong (one release behind)
- Installs for the whole PC with admin rights and three Windows services; two updater services stay after uninstalling
- The uninstaller itself is unsigned, so Windows shows “Publisher: Unknown”
- Pushes hard to become your default browser, including an “Are you sure you want to browse with ads?” prompt
Privacy and security
What we saw on our own test PC. Each review also lists what the vendor states about data handling, training and certifications.
BrowserOS neo
Listens on every network interface
The browser opened ports 9010 and 9011 on all network interfaces, not only on the PC itself, so Windows Firewall asked to allow it on public and private networks. We clicked Cancel, which keeps it blocked.
Your pages go to the agent you connect
Every page the agent reads is sent to its AI provider. Use an agent and plan whose data terms you accept, and think twice before signing it in to banking or work accounts.
Recordings stay on disk
Every agent session is recorded locally; 72 MB for our test. With the default uninstall the 752 MB profile, recordings included, stays on the PC.
No admin rights, nothing that runs at startup
The installer and uninstaller need no admin rights and add no services, scheduled tasks or startup entries. The installer is signed by Felafax, Inc.
Engine one version behind
Version 155.0.8315.26 is based on Chromium 155; Chrome stable was 156 on our test day. BrowserOS updates itself in the background.
Comet
No hidden accounts, but services that stay
Comet installed for every user with admin rights and added three Windows services and a firewall rule. It created no Windows user accounts. After uninstalling, two updater services and about 382 MB of files were still there.
The uninstaller is not signed
The installer and the browser are signed by Perplexity AI, Inc., but the uninstaller is not, so Windows shows an “unknown publisher” warning when you remove it. It does offer to delete your browsing data (unticked by default).
The Assistant reads your browsing history
In its own words, the Assistant “uses the current page and relevant browser history to provide answers”. Keep that in mind on shared PCs, or turn it off per site.
Features & Pricing
| BrowserOS neo | Comet | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | — | — |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | — |
| iOS | — | ✓ |
| Android | — | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | Not checked | $20/mo |
BrowserOS neo plans
- BrowserOS neoFree
- Your AI agentSeparate
- Ultrafast modeNot launched
From BrowserOS neo's pricing page, checked Oct 28, 2026.
Comet plans
- Free$0
- Pro$20/month
- Max$200/month
- Comet Plus (publisher add-on)$5/month
- Enterprise Pro$40/seat/month
- Enterprise Max$325/seat/month
- Extra Computer credits$1 per 100 credits
From Comet's pricing page, checked Oct 28, 2026.
Cost for your team
- Comet$1,200per year
- BrowserOS neo—no paid plan
Cheapest paid plan × seats × 12, at list price. Annual discounts and volume deals not included. BrowserOS neo and Comet also have a free plan.
Who makes them
- Company
- BrowserOS neo:BrowserOS (Felafax, Inc.)
- Comet:Perplexity AI, Inc.
- Headquarters
- BrowserOS neo:Redwood City and San Francisco, California, USA
- Comet:San Francisco, California, USA
- Founded
- BrowserOS neo:2024
- Comet:2022
- Funding
- BrowserOS neo:Backed by Y Combinator (Summer 2024 batch); no further funding has been announced.
- Comet:A September 2025 round valued Perplexity at $20 billion, and a January 2026 round reportedly lifted the valuation to about $22-23 billion. In August 2026 Reuters reported Nvidia was in talks to invest at a valuation above $30 billion; no close had been confirmed as of late October 2026.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: BrowserOS neo · Comet.
FAQ
Which is better, BrowserOS neo or Comet?
For getting tasks done, BrowserOS neo with Claude: 8 of 8 against 1 of 8 for Comet's free assistant. For a simple AI browser that works out of the box, Comet. Overall 6.3 against 5.2.
Can either fill in forms for free?
Comet's free assistant refused. BrowserOS neo can when an agent drives it, but the agent is not free.
Which has a built-in AI?
Comet has Perplexity's assistant built in. BrowserOS neo has none and is driven by an outside agent over MCP.
Which uses less memory?
BrowserOS neo, slightly: 2.9 GB for our ten tabs against 3.0 GB for Comet (Edge used 2.4 GB).
Which installs more cleanly?
BrowserOS neo needs no admin rights and adds no services; Comet needs admin rights and adds three updater services. Neo leaves more data behind after uninstalling.
Read the full reviews
This page compares the two side by side. Each full review has the complete test log, every screenshot, the scoring notes, pricing, security and company details.
BrowserOS neo reviewSituational 6.3 BrowserOS neo has no AI of its own: it is a browser built for an outside agent to drive. With Claude connected it completed all eight of our tasks and reported every result accurately, but that score belongs to the pair, and you need a paid AI agent and some setup to get there. Read the full review → Comet reviewSituational 5.2 On the Free plan Comet is a fast, well-behaved Chromium browser with a quick answer panel, but not an agent: in eight scripted web tasks its Assistant never once clicked, typed or opened a tab, and every answer pointed us to Perplexity's separate Computer agent instead. Read the full review → AI Browsers Alternatives
Polar Recommended People who want an AI browser that fills forms, opens tabs, builds files and runs scheduled tasks on its own, without paying for or setting up a separate agent 7.0 Read reviewReview 
Dia Situational People who want accurate, sourced answers across their tabs and quick slide decks, and prefer an assistant that asks before it acts 6.3 Read reviewReview 
