AI browser · head to head
BrowserOS neo vs Polar
Comparison Summary
Polar scored 7.0 and BrowserOS neo scored 6.3 on our AI browser test script.
These two did the most in our tests, in very different ways. Polar has its own agent: sign in and it works, and it did seven of our eight tasks and half of the eighth. BrowserOS neo has no AI at all; with Claude connected it did all eight, but you need a separate paid agent and some setup.
Polar is faster, especially for files (a slide deck in 50 seconds against three minutes), uses less memory and adds nothing that listens on the network, but it needs an account and sends what its agent sees to its own servers. BrowserOS neo is open source and needs no account, but listens on every network interface and records every session. Polar scored 7.0 and BrowserOS neo 6.3.
Key differences
BrowserOS neo
Polar - 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
- Polar:An agent: opens real tabs, fills in and submits forms, builds files and runs scheduled workflows
- Our 8 scripted tasks
- BrowserOS neo:8 passed, with Claude Opus 5.5 driving it
- Polar:7 passed, 1 partial
- Speed
- BrowserOS neo:Most tasks in 30–50 seconds; slide deck in about 3 minutes
- Polar:Most tasks in 15–45 seconds; slide deck in about 50 seconds
- Memory
- BrowserOS neo:2.9 GB with our ten test tabs (Edge: 2.4 GB); highest CPU while loading
- Polar:2.4 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
- Polar:229 MB installer, no admin rights, 560 MB on disk; nothing runs at startup
- Left after uninstalling
- BrowserOS neo:About 752 MB of profile data and session recordings, plus its entry in Claude's settings
- Polar:The 143 MB signed-in profile and a small cookie file
- Asked to buy something
- BrowserOS neo:Bought nothing and said it would confirm the item and total first
- Polar:Bought nothing and said it would stop before paying
- Free plan
- BrowserOS neo:The browser is free and open source; the AI agent is paid separately
- Polar:1,000 credits to start plus 50 a day; our eight tasks used 52
- Paid plans
- BrowserOS neo:None for neo; your agent's plan or API costs (we used a paid Claude plan)
- Polar:Individual $20/month (10,000 credits); Teams $50/seat/month
- Platforms
- BrowserOS neo:Windows and macOS (Linux listed on the site)
- Polar:Windows and macOS
- Browser engine
- BrowserOS neo:Chromium 155 (Chrome stable was 156 on our test day)
- Polar:Chromium 153 (Chrome stable was 156 on our test day)
Editor's Verdict
Choose Polar if…
Best for: 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.
- Seven of eight scripted tasks fully done and one partly, with its own built-in agent; every form report matched the page
- Fast: most tasks took 15 to 45 seconds, and the five-slide deck about 50 seconds
- Generous free plan: our eight tasks used 52 of the 1,000 starting credits, and 50 more are added every day
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
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 8 tasks both apps were graded on, BrowserOS neo completed 8 and Polar completed 7.
| Task | BrowserOS neo | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| T1 · Research | Pass≈ 35–50 s | Partial≈ 35–40 s |
| T2 · Form fill | Pass≈ 35–45 s | Pass≈ 25 s |
| T3 · Price comparison | Pass≈ 15–20 s | Pass≤ 15 s |
| T4 · Multi-tab extraction | Pass≈ 35–50 s | Pass≈ 30–40 s |
| T5 · Routine | Pass≈ 30–45 s | Pass≈ 30 s |
| S1 · Purchase request | Pass≈ 35 s | Pass≈ 25 s |
| D1 · Slide deck | Pass≈ 3 min | Pass≈ 50 s |
| F1 · Tricky form | Pass≈ 1 min 20 s | Pass≈ 45–60 s |
BrowserOS neo has no AI of its own, so its tasks were run by Claude Desktop (Opus 5.5) driving it over MCP; Polar used its own built-in agent on a free account. Same clean Windows 11 PC and same eight prompts, October 28, 2026.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | BrowserOS neo | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| Installer size | 138 MB | 229 MB |
| Install time | ≈ 25 s | ≈ 40 s |
| On disk | 965 MB | 703 MB |
| Admin rights | Not needed | Not needed |
| Added to Windows | No services | Nothing running |
| Browser engine | Chromium 155 | Chromium 153 |
| Time per task | 15 s – 3 min | 15 – 60 s |
| 10 tabs, RAM | 2.9 GB | 2.4 GB |
| 10 tabs, private memory | 1.8 GB | 1.2 GB |
| CPU while loading 10 tabs | 1.84 cores | 1.14 cores |
| Cold start | 1.3 s | 3.4 – 3.7 s |
| Uninstall time | < 6 s | ≈ 6 s |
| Left after uninstall | 752 MB | 143 MB |
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
Polar
+ What works
- Seven of eight scripted tasks fully done and one partly, with its own built-in agent; every form report matched the page
- Fast: most tasks took 15 to 45 seconds, and the five-slide deck about 50 seconds
- Generous free plan: our eight tasks used 52 of the 1,000 starting credits, and 50 more are added every day
- Says what it did not check: it flagged secondary sources, titles filled from memory and the workflow it could not delete
- Built-in Workflows with schedules, local or in the cloud; the agent created, showed and unscheduled ours
- Memory use like Edge: 2.4 GB with our ten test tabs
- No admin rights, no services, no startup entries, and nothing listening on the network
− What falls short
- An account is required before you can use it at all, even as a plain browser
- The agent's prompts, screenshots and page context go to Polar's servers and unnamed AI providers
- Chromium 153, three versions behind Chrome on our test day
- Slow to start: about 3.5 seconds, against 0.7 for Edge
- Setup ticks “Set Polar as my default browser” for you
- The uninstaller leaves the signed-in profile (143 MB) and a stray cookie file behind
- Wide tables overflow the chat, and the slide deck cannot be previewed inside Polar
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.
Polar
Account required
Polar shows only a Sign In button until you create an account; there is no way to use it as a plain browser without one.
Nothing in the background
No services, scheduled tasks or startup entries, and the only listening port is on the PC itself. No admin rights were needed to install or uninstall.
Profile and cookie file left behind
After uninstalling, the 143 MB profile with your cookies and sign-ins stayed, as did a shared cookie file Polar wrote to a separate folder in your user profile.
Engine three versions behind
Version 0.2.2 is built on Chromium 153.0.8010.53; Chrome stable was 156 on our test day.
Features & Pricing
| BrowserOS neo | Polar | |
|---|---|---|
| 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.
Cost for your team
- Polar$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 Polar also have a free plan.
Who makes them
- Company
- BrowserOS neo:BrowserOS (Felafax, Inc.)
- Polar:Recursive Intelligence, Inc.
- Headquarters
- BrowserOS neo:Redwood City and San Francisco, California, USA
- Polar:San Francisco, California, USA
- Founded
- BrowserOS neo:2024
- Polar:—
- Funding
- BrowserOS neo:Backed by Y Combinator (Summer 2024 batch); no further funding has been announced.
- Polar:$5.7 million seed round led by Madrona, announced July 29, 2026.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: BrowserOS neo · Polar.
FAQ
Which is better, Polar or BrowserOS neo?
For most people, Polar: it works on its own with a free account and scored 7.0 against 6.3. BrowserOS neo with Claude did one task better, but needs a separate paid agent and setup.
Do I need a separate AI subscription?
Not for Polar, whose agent is built in with free daily credits. BrowserOS neo has no AI of its own and needs an agent such as Claude Code with its own plan or API costs.
Which is faster?
Polar: most tasks took 15–45 seconds and the slide deck about 50 seconds. BrowserOS neo with Claude took 30–50 seconds for most tasks and about 3 minutes for the deck.
Which uses less memory?
Polar: 2.4 GB for our ten tabs, the same as Edge, against 2.9 GB for BrowserOS neo.
Which is more private?
It depends on what worries you. Polar needs an account and sends agent screenshots and page context to its servers. BrowserOS neo needs no account but listens on every network interface, sends telemetry by default and sends pages to the agent you connect.
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 → Polar reviewRecommended 7.0 Polar's own agent did seven of our eight tasks and half of the eighth, quickly and with honest reports, on a free plan that barely noticed the cost. It needs an account, sends what the agent sees to its servers and runs a three-version-old engine, but it is the best all-in-one AI browser we have tested on Windows. Read the full review → AI Browsers Alternatives
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 
Strawberry Situational Hands-on users who want a browser agent for research, form filling and data gathering and are comfortable reviewing what it installs 6.2 Read reviewReview 
