What is ChatGPT Atlas?
Atlas was OpenAI's web browser with ChatGPT built in, able to browse and act on pages on your behalf. It is no longer a product: OpenAI announced its deprecation on 9 July 2026 and Atlas was scheduled to stop working on 9 August 2026, twelve days before this page was written. Its browser-based agentic capabilities moved into ChatGPT and Codex, principally through the ChatGPT desktop app.
- Status
- Discontinued as of Aug 9, 2026
- What it was
- A web browser with ChatGPT built in
- Announced
- Jul 9, 2026 ~30-day wind-down
- Replaced by
- ChatGPT desktop app plus Chrome extension
- Bookmarks transfer
- Manual only export to HTML
- Security updates
- Ended do not keep using it
- ChatGPT chats affected
- No separate from browser data
- Verified
- 2026-08-21 OpenAI deprecation notice
If you are here to try Atlas, the answer is that you cannot.
OpenAI's article is titled Evolving Atlas into ChatGPT for browser-based agentic work, and its content is a shutdown notice. Atlas was scheduled to stop working on 9 August 2026. After that date, per OpenAI, it "may no longer open, browse, or support browser-based agentic workflows". The announcement came on 9 July, giving roughly a 30-day wind-down.
The replacement is not a single product but a redistribution. Browser-based agentic capability moved into ChatGPT and Codex — chiefly the new ChatGPT desktop app, which OpenAI says supports multiple tabs, downloads, improved navigation and account-login support where available. For lighter help while browsing, there is a ChatGPT Chrome extension or sidebar. Availability of both depends on plan, region, device and workspace settings.
There is a security point that outlives the product. OpenAI's own wording: browsers require ongoing security maintenance, and it does not want users remaining on a discontinued browser that may degrade or stop receiving security updates. If Atlas is still installed on a machine you use, that is a reason to move rather than a matter of taste — an unmaintained browser is an unmaintained attack surface.
One reassurance worth stating because people conflate the two: your ChatGPT conversation history is separate from Atlas browser data and was not affected. The shutdown took a browser, not your chats.
If you used it.
OpenAI's instructions assumed you would act before 9 August, but if the application still launches on your machine they are still worth following:
- Bookmarks — open the bookmark manager, export to an HTML file, then import that file into Chrome via More → Bookmarks and lists → Import bookmarks and settings. They do not transfer on their own.
- Open tabs and history — these do not transfer at all. Copy URLs into a document or bookmark them.
- Cookies and sessions — export options exist where available, and OpenAI is explicit that these should be treated as sensitive data.
If Atlas no longer opens, bookmarks and history are likely gone. That is the cost of a 30-day window on a product that held browser data.
OpenAI's line — do not share cookie or session files unless you trust the recipient and understand what access they may provide — is the most important sentence in the whole notice, and the easiest to skim past.
An exported cookie file can contain live logged-in sessions for every site you were signed into. Handing one to a "migration helper", pasting it into a support ticket or dropping it in a shared folder is functionally handing over those accounts, without a password ever changing hands. Delete the export once you are done with it.
Atlas is not an isolated case, and the pattern is the useful takeaway. In 2026 alone OpenAI discontinued the Sora consumer apps, retired group chats, announced the end of the DALL·E GPT, removed custom-GPT creation from every personal plan, and retired a long list of models from ChatGPT.
Each came with a dated notice and, usually, an export path — which is more than many vendors manage. But the lesson for anyone building a habit or a workflow on a side feature is the same: it can be withdrawn with a help-centre article and thirty days' notice. That is why every claim on this site carries the date we checked it, and why we would rather write "discontinued" than leave a page describing a product that no longer exists.
Browsing with an assistant, now.
Atlas's job — an assistant that can see and act on web pages — did not disappear with the product. We have not tested any of these routes; availability varies by plan, region, device and workspace.
Frequently asked.
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