Arc browser on its way out as makers suggest an alternative

The Arc browser has flatlined, with its maker announcing it will be sunsetting it altogether on December 22, 2026.  The Browser Company announced the news on October 22, just over three years after we noted Arc's arrival.

Nothing will happen immediately, other than an end to new Arc accounts. Starting November 23, lights will begin turning off on iOS and Android, with several AI features disabled and sign-ins to sync tabs removed. Finally, on December 22, it will no longer be possible to access or use Arc on macOS and Windows. Accounts will be deactivated, and data deleted within 30 days.

The solution? According to The Browser Company, a move to its AI browser, Dia, is one way forward. Users can import their profiles into the brave, new AI-native world and carry on as before. Sort of.

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When it launched, the Chromium-based Arc was an innovative browser with a workflow unlike its rivals. Instead of a plethora of tabs, there was a sidebar. The browser attempted to change how users interacted with the web but… frankly… it never really caught on.

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The writing was on the wall for a while. In 2025, The Browser Company pivoted to AI and its Dia browser, dropping Arc into maintenance mode. Later that year, the vendor was snapped up by Atlassian, although Arc continued to plow its lonely furrow.

However, a year on, the time has come for Arc. CEO Josh Miller wrote: "We have so much pride and love for what we made alongside the Arc community," but it seems that wasn't enough to keep the browser maintained alongside Dia development.

Hopes that Arc might be open-sourced so that its community could continue development were dashed in 2025, when Miller explained that "Arc isn't just a Chromium fork … It runs on custom infrastructure we call ADK — the Arc Development Kit."

Dia also uses ADK.

Arc's innovations have found their way, at least in part, into other browsers. Many users have found solace in the Zen browser, and there is always Vivaldi for power users. There is also a level of risk in going all-in on AI-native browsers in an increasingly crowded marketplace. For example, Strawberry, currently in beta, leverages AI agents to smooth a user's workflow. Dia might be a successor to Arc, but there is a risk that users will consider something else.

As for Arc itself, The Browser Company plans to focus on Dia going forward. So for the Arc community, it is time to move on. ®