The Browser Company to Shut Down Arc on December 22, Steering Users to AI-First Dia

The Browser Company has announced it will shut down Arc, its design-driven web browser, on December 22, 2026, and is urging users to move to Dia, its AI-centered browser. The company shared the decision on Thursday, October 22, pointing to the rising cost of keeping a browser secure as artificial intelligence reshapes the web.

"Keeping a browser secure takes constant, dedicated work that is only increasing in the age of AI," the company wrote. It added that Dia "was built from the ground up to meet today's security standards, so that's where our engineering and security teams will focus moving forward."

The retirement will happen in three phases. Starting Thursday, people can no longer create new Arc accounts. On November 23, Arc Search on iOS and Android will lose its AI features, among them "Browse for Me." Sign-in and tab syncing will also end that day, although the app will keep working as a basic local browser.

The final step comes on December 22, when Arc will stop functioning altogether on Mac and Windows. Accounts will be deactivated, and personal data will be deleted within 30 days. Arc Search will also be pulled from the Google Play Store.

The Browser Company says Dia now outperforms Arc on speed, stability and security benchmarks. Reaction on social media was largely disappointed, though, and many users renewed calls for the company to release Arc as open source.

That outcome looks unlikely. CEO Josh Miller has previously noted that Arc is built on the Arc Development Kit (ADK), a proprietary internal SDK that also serves as the core engine behind Dia. Open-sourcing Arc would therefore mean handing over Dia's intellectual property. "While we'd love to open-source Arc someday, we can't do that meaningfully without also open-sourcing ADK," Miller said earlier. "And ADK is still core to our company's value."

For those who switch, Dia will offer counterparts to several of Arc's central features. Arc's Spaces become "Profiles" in Dia, letting users swipe between work and personal environments. Arc's trademark vertical tabs will be available as an optional sidebar layout, and Folders have been renamed "Pinned Tab Groups."

Passwords, bookmarks, extensions and history are set to transfer to Dia without trouble. Arc's features will stay free within Dia, and the AI components will be optional.

The shutdown formally ends a chapter that began in 2025, when the startup stopped actively developing new Arc features. The Browser Company, which Atlassian acquired for $610 million in 2025, acknowledged then that although early adopters admired the browser's novel interface, a "novelty tax" and its complexity held back mainstream adoption. Arc earned a devoted following among enthusiasts but never became the mass-market Chrome alternative its creators had envisioned.