What is BrowserOS?
BrowserOS is a monorepo from Felafax, Inc. that ships two Chromium-based desktop browsers. BrowserOS, the original, is a daily browser with a chat and agent panel in every tab that works with your own Gemini, Claude or OpenAI keys, or local models through Ollama and LM Studio. BrowserOS neo, formerly BrowserClaw and now the focus of the README, is a second browser that sits next to Chrome and is driven by external agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor through a local MCP endpoint.
Neo keeps your logins in its own profile, runs each agent in its own tab, shows running sessions on a new-tab dashboard and records every session as a replayable video on disk. Releases are frequent: neo v0.51.2.3 shipped on 23 October 2026, with separate tags for the server, extension and onboarding parts.
Both browsers are free and AGPL-3.0, for macOS, Windows and Linux (neo on x64 only). The website says the company is backed by Y Combinator; enterprise deployment is by email, with no published plans.
Is BrowserOS worth it?
BrowserOS has pivoted, and readers should know which product they are looking at. The repository, created in May 2025, still describes itself as an open alternative to ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet and Dia: a Chromium fork with an agent built in. The README now leads with neo, a separate browser that does nothing on its own and exists to be driven by agents you already pay for. Both still ship from the repository, but neo gets the release cadence: more than a dozen tagged neo components in October 2026 alone.
Neo's argument against its rivals is sound. Headless drivers such as Playwright start a blank Chrome with no logins, and cloud browsers such as Browserbase or Browser Use Cloud sit on datacentre IP addresses that, the README says, sites like LinkedIn and X block. Neo runs on your own machine and IP with your real sessions, so 'read my inbox' or 'update the CRM' works without handing credentials to a cloud. The company also claims neo uses fewer tokens than Claude's Chrome extension or the Codex browser, without publishing numbers.
The security model is where to slow down. The MCP endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:9200/mcp, and the connection docs mention no token or key, only that the address is local. Any program on the machine that can reach that port, including a compromised dependency or a prompt-injected agent, can act in every account signed into neo. The docs also disagree with themselves: the README promises a one-click import of Chrome logins, while the how-it-works page says nothing is imported and you sign in to each site by hand.
Privacy defaults are otherwise reasonable. Sessions, screenshots and history stay under ~/.browserclaw/ with no cloud sync or account. Anonymous product events (start-up, which agent connected, version and OS) go to PostHog by default and switch off in Settings; the privacy page says URLs, page content, prompts and screenshots are never sent. AGPL-3.0 matters little for a desktop browser you run yourself, but it rules out shipping a modified neo inside a closed product.
Where it earns its place
A founder of a five-person start-up who lives in Claude Code
Have the agent update the CRM and file expenses after calls
Sign in to the CRM and expense tool once in neo, connect Claude Code from the MCP screen, then give tasks from the terminal. Cost is the model tokens on your existing Claude plan; neo itself is free.
A social media manager at a small agency
Queue LinkedIn and X posts and pull engagement numbers
Run several agent tasks in parallel tabs from a residential connection, which the README argues avoids the datacentre-IP blocks cloud browsers hit. Automating posting still has to fit each platform's terms; X's terms forbid scraping without consent.
An engineer auditing what an agent did on a customer portal
Check every click before trusting an automated workflow
Open the session replay from the new-tab dashboard and step through the action timeline. Recordings live under ~/.browserclaw/, so delete them if they captured personal data.
Before you commit
- Setup
- brew install --cask browseros-neo on macOS, or download the DMG, Windows installer, AppImage or DEB. The docs put setup at six steps and about five minutes, ending with a one-click Connect for each agent and one restart of that agent.
- Integrations
- MCP clients including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Antigravity, VS Code and Zed, which get a single browseros-neo entry in their config; anything else can paste the endpoint URL. Classic BrowserOS adds built-in MCP servers for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets and Notion. Chrome extensions work in both.
- Data and privacy
- Local only: profile, recordings and screenshots on disk, no account or sync. Anonymous usage events to PostHog on by default, off with one toggle. The MCP endpoint at 127.0.0.1:9200 documents no authentication. No published security advisories.
- Cost at scale
- Free; the cost is your agent's model usage. Classic BrowserOS includes a built-in model with limited daily use for testing, then needs your own keys or a local model. Building the browser from source needs about 100 GB of disk.
- Limits
- About 101 open issues. Neo on Linux is x64 only. In classic BrowserOS, the docs say local models are not yet good enough for Agent Mode, only chat, and the visual workflow builder is marked coming soon.
What's good
- Agents work with your real logged-in sessions on your own IP
- One-click MCP setup for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Zed
- Every session saved as a replayable video with a step timeline
- Recordings and history stay on disk; telemetry excludes URLs and content
What's not
- Local MCP endpoint documents no authentication
- Telemetry on by default
- Docs contradict each other on importing Chrome logins
- Two products in one repo blur the roadmap
Best for
Developers and solo operators who want Claude Code or Codex to do logged-in web chores in a browser kept apart from their daily one.
BrowserOS alternatives
BrowserOS: common questions
- Is BrowserOS worth it?
- BrowserOS neo is a sensible answer to letting a coding agent use your logged-in web accounts, provided you accept that an unauthenticated local endpoint now drives a browser signed into all of them. We rate it 3.9 out of 5.
- How much does BrowserOS cost?
- Free under AGPL-3.0. You pay your own model provider; no paid plans published, enterprise by contact.
- What are the downsides of BrowserOS?
- Local MCP endpoint documents no authentication; telemetry on by default; docs contradict each other on importing Chrome logins; two products in one repo blur the roadmap.
- Who is BrowserOS best for?
- Developers and solo operators who want Claude Code or Codex to do logged-in web chores in a browser kept apart from their daily one.
- How much does BrowserOS cost for a team or in production?
- Free; the cost is your agent's model usage. Classic BrowserOS includes a built-in model with limited daily use for testing, then needs your own keys or a local model. Building the browser from source needs about 100 GB of disk.
- Is BrowserOS safe for company data?
- Local only: profile, recordings and screenshots on disk, no account or sync. Anonymous usage events to PostHog on by default, off with one toggle. The MCP endpoint at 127.0.0.1:9200 documents no authentication. No published security advisories.
- What are the best BrowserOS alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Browser Use, Magentic-UI (MagenticLite), Skyvern and Stagehand.
Answers checked Oct 26, 2026.