Arc browser to shut down on December 22, with users urged to move to Dia

The Browser Company has set a firm end date for its Arc browser. The company announced on October 22 that Arc will be sunset on December 22, 2026, which leaves users exactly two months to switch.

Arc is the desktop browser that first put the company on the map. The firm has since turned its attention to a second attempt at challenging established desktop browsers, this time with a project called Dia. The decision to discontinue Arc in favor of Dia had been announced earlier, and Arc has not been moving forward in development for more than a year.

In its announcement, the company acknowledged the weight of the decision. "That's not an easy sentence to write," it said, adding that it spent years building Arc and celebrating each release. It also said it has "so much pride and love" for what it made alongside the Arc community.

Security was the main reason the company gave for focusing on Dia. "Our priority is to deliver best-in-class security for our members," it said. The company noted that keeping a browser secure takes constant, dedicated work, and that this demand is growing in the age of AI. According to the announcement, Dia was built from the ground up to meet current security standards, so the engineering and security teams will concentrate their efforts there.

The Browser Company also tried to reassure Arc users about the switch, listing four points. Passwords, bookmarks, extensions and history are said to transfer to Dia seamlessly. Spaces, Folders and Tab Groups also exist in Dia and import with data intact. The company says Dia now surpasses Arc's benchmarks for stability, speed and security. Finally, it says the browser features Arc users rely on are free in Dia, and that the AI features are optional.

Dia is available as a free download. Users who would rather not move to it have other choices, since several alternative browsers remain available on the Mac and other platforms.

The change comes as other AI-focused browsers have also shifted course. OpenAI shut down its AI-centric Atlas browser this year in favor of the in-app browser inside ChatGPT.