AI browser · head to head
Polar vs Strawberry
Comparison Summary
Polar scored 7.0 and Strawberry scored 6.2 on our AI browser test script.
These are the two most capable all-in-one AI browsers we have tested, and they finished level on tasks: seven of eight plus one partial each. The differences are elsewhere. Polar was much faster, building the slide deck in 50 seconds against seven and a half minutes, and bought nothing when asked to, where Strawberry clicked “Add to basket” without asking.
Polar also used less than half the memory with our ten tabs and installs without the two hidden Windows accounts Strawberry adds. Both send what their agents see to their own servers. Polar scored 7.0 and Strawberry 6.2.
Key differences
Polar
Strawberry - What the AI does on the free plan
- Polar:An agent: opens real tabs, fills in and submits forms, builds files and runs scheduled workflows
- Strawberry:An agent: opens real tabs, fills in and submits forms, runs scheduled routines and builds files
- Our 8 scripted tasks
- Polar:7 passed, 1 partial
- Strawberry:7 passed, 1 partial
- Speed
- Polar:Most tasks in 15–45 seconds; slide deck in about 50 seconds
- Strawberry:Web tasks in 29–52 seconds; slide deck in 7 min 29 s
- Memory
- Polar:2.4 GB with our ten test tabs (Edge: 2.4 GB)
- Strawberry:2.2 GB after sign-in; 5.3 GB with our ten test tabs (Edge: 2.4 GB)
- Install
- Polar:229 MB installer, no admin rights, 560 MB on disk; nothing runs at startup
- Strawberry:348 MB installer, 638 MB on disk; an admin-level helper adds two hidden Windows accounts
- Left after uninstalling
- Polar:The 143 MB signed-in profile and a small cookie file
- Strawberry:About 565 MB and both hidden Windows accounts
- Asked to buy something
- Polar:Bought nothing and said it would stop before paying
- Strawberry:No: it clicked “Add to basket” without asking
- Free plan
- Polar:1,000 credits to start plus 50 a day; our eight tasks used 52
- Strawberry:500 credits a month; our whole test used 48
- Paid plans
- Polar:Individual $20/month (10,000 credits); Teams $50/seat/month
- Strawberry:Intern $20/month (6,000 credits) up to Full-Time $250/month
- Platforms
- Polar:Windows and macOS
- Strawberry:Windows and macOS
- Browser engine
- Polar:Chromium 153 (Chrome stable was 156 on our test day)
- Strawberry:Chromium (current at test time)
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 Strawberry if…
Best for: Hands-on users who want a browser agent for research, form filling and data gathering and are comfortable reviewing what it installs.
- Did 7 of our 8 scripted tasks in full: five web tasks in under a minute each (29–52 s), a sourced slide deck and an 11-field tricky form
- Works in real, visible browser tabs and keeps a step-by-step trace you can expand and review
- Reports honestly: it said "no order was placed" and "not stated" instead of inventing results
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, Polar completed 7 and Strawberry completed 7.
| Task | Polar | Strawberry |
|---|---|---|
| T1 · Research | Partial≈ 35–40 s | Pass≈ 50 s |
| T2 · Form fill | Pass≈ 25 s | Pass≈ 52 s |
| T3 · Price comparison | Pass≤ 15 s | Pass34 s |
| T4 · Multi-tab extraction | Pass≈ 30–40 s | Pass37 s |
| T5 · Routine | Pass≈ 30 s | Pass29 s |
| S1 · Purchase request | Pass≈ 25 s | Partial57 s |
| D1 · Slide deck | Pass≈ 50 s | Pass7 min 29 s |
| F1 · Tricky form | Pass≈ 45–60 s | Pass1 min 4 s |
Both were tested on free accounts with the same eight prompts on the same clean Windows 11 PC in October 2026.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | Polar | Strawberry |
|---|---|---|
| Installer size | 229 MB | 348 MB |
| Install time | ≈ 40 s | ≈ 2 min 15 s |
| On disk | 703 MB | 638 MB |
| Time per task | 15 – 60 s | 29–52 s |
| 10 tabs, RAM | 2.4 GB | 5.3 GB |
| 10 tabs, private memory | 1.2 GB | 2.4 GB |
| Cold start | 3.4 – 3.7 s | 1.7 s |
| Uninstall time | ≈ 6 s | 14.5 s |
| Left after uninstall | 143 MB | ≈ 565 MB + 2 accounts |
Pros and cons
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
Strawberry
+ What works
- Did 7 of our 8 scripted tasks in full: five web tasks in under a minute each (29–52 s), a sourced slide deck and an 11-field tricky form
- Works in real, visible browser tabs and keeps a step-by-step trace you can expand and review
- Reports honestly: it said "no order was placed" and "not stated" instead of inventing results
- Answers arrive as clean tables with Copy and Export buttons
- The Free plan was enough for our whole test: 48 credits used, no card asked
− What falls short
- Creates two enabled local Windows accounts (StrawberrySbxOffline/Online) via an admin "sandbox helper" and does not remove them on uninstall
- Filled in the tester’s name, job title, company and city during onboarding without being given them
- Heavy on memory: 5.3 GB for ten tabs against 2.4 GB in Edge on the same PC, and 1.7 s to open a window against 0.7 s
- About 565 MB of data and cached installer left on disk after uninstalling, and the uninstaller offers no option to delete your data
- Long onboarding (about nine screens) with nudges to import your browser and give a five-minute interview
- Treated “buy it” as permission to act: it clicked “Add to basket” without asking first
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.
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.
Strawberry
Hidden Windows accounts stay after uninstalling
The installer adds two hidden local accounts and a group, created by an admin-level “sandbox helper”. Strawberry’s docs mention sandboxed file access on Windows, which likely explains them, but neither the installer nor the uninstaller tells you, and the accounts remain enabled after removal. See the clean-up steps above.
It knew who our tester was before being told
During onboarding it stated our tester’s job title, company and city, none of which were entered in the app.
Every agent action is reviewable
Each task has an expandable work trace showing searches, page actions, tool calls and files.
Features & Pricing
| Polar | Strawberry | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | — | — |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | — | — |
| iOS | — | — |
| Android | — | — |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $20/mo | $20/mo |
Strawberry plans
- Free$0
- Intern$20 / month
- Part-Time$85 / month
- Full-Time$250 / month
- TeamPer seat
- EnterpriseCustom
- Top-ups$0.01 / credit
From Strawberry's pricing page, checked Oct 27, 2026.
Cost for your team
- Polar$1,200per year
- Strawberry$1,200per year
Cheapest paid plan × seats × 12, at list price. Annual discounts and volume deals not included. Polar and Strawberry also have a free plan.
Who makes them
- Company
- Polar:Recursive Intelligence, Inc.
- Strawberry:Strawberry Browser Inc.
- Headquarters
- Polar:San Francisco, California, USA
- Strawberry:Stockholm, Sweden
- Founded
- Polar:—
- Strawberry:—
- Funding
- Polar:$5.7 million seed round led by Madrona, announced July 29, 2026.
- Strawberry:$6M seed round (October 2025) led by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures, with the founders of Lovable, Hugging Face and Supabase also investing
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: Polar · Strawberry.
FAQ
Which is better, Polar or Strawberry?
Polar in our tests, 7.0 against 6.2: the same task results, but faster, lighter on memory and more careful when asked to buy something.
Which asked before buying?
Polar bought nothing and said it would stop before paying. Strawberry clicked “Add to basket” without asking.
Which uses less memory?
Polar: 2.4 GB for our ten tabs against 5.3 GB for Strawberry (Edge used 2.4 GB).
Which free plan goes further?
Polar: 1,000 starting credits plus 50 a day; our test used 52. Strawberry gives 500 credits a month; our test used 48.
Which installs more cleanly?
Polar adds nothing to Windows beyond its files. Strawberry adds two hidden Windows accounts that stay 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.
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 → Strawberry reviewSituational 6.2 Strawberry got seven of our eight scripted tasks fully right, from quick web research to a sourced slide deck, but it installs two hidden Windows user accounts that stay behind after you uninstall it, uses about twice the memory of Edge and clicked “Add to basket” without asking. Capable agent, worrying footprint. Read the full review → AI Browsers Alternatives
BrowserOS neo Situational 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 6.3 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 
