Alternatives
Best Gemini in Chrome Alternatives in 2026
Gemini in Chrome is Google's assistant built into the Chrome browser. You open it with the Ask Gemini button in the toolbar, it reads the tabs you already have open, and it reaches into Google apps such as Gmail. Nothing to install, no subscription listed for the assistant itself, and a 4.2/5 ToolChase Score. People still shop around, for specific reasons: it is gated by region, language, age and account type, it is switched off in Incognito, and the genuinely agentic part, auto browse, is a paid United States preview with a daily request cap. The five alternatives below split into browsers that replace Chrome and sidebars that sit inside it.
Why look for Gemini in Chrome alternatives?
Start with what is genuinely good, because for a lot of readers the answer is to stay put.
- → Nothing to install: it is part of the browser most people already use, and Google's requirements page lists no subscription for the assistant itself
- → It works on the pages you already have open: summarizing an article, explaining a topic another way, and comparing information across pages
- → It only appears when you ask for it, and activity can be reviewed, deleted or turned off in Gemini Apps Activity
- → Where it does act for you, it asks first. Google states that Gemini asks for your review and confirmation before certain actions, such as sending communications, modifying your data and submitting web forms, and that you can take over a task at any time
And the reasons people still leave, all of them straight from Google's own requirements pages.
- → The entry conditions are long. On a computer you need to be 13 or older (or the applicable age in your country), be in a supported region, use a Chromebook Plus, Mac or Windows computer, run the latest version of Chrome, sign in to Chrome, and set your device language to a supported one
- → Google states the feature is not available in Incognito mode, and that if you are over 18 and use a work or school Google Account, access must be enabled by your administrator
- → Auto browse, the part that actually completes multi-step tasks for you, is the paid tier in disguise. Google's requirements: be 18 or over and in the US, have Google AI Ultra or Google AI Pro on your personal account, set your device language to English, and use a computer. Google states it is not available on iPhone or iPad, or in Incognito
- → Auto browse is metered by task. Google lists up to 20 auto browse requests a day on AI Pro and up to 200 a day on AI Ultra, so the agentic ceiling is fixed by which plan you hold
- → It is one assistant, one browser and one account. If you want a second opinion from Claude or GPT on the same page, or you would rather the assistant were not signed in to your Google identity, no setting fixes that
Comet
Best for agentic browsing you do not have to subscribe to
Dia
Best for context that lives in Slack and Notion, not only Google
Sider
Best for adding model choice without changing browsers
Merlin AI
Best for multi-model access at the lowest yearly outlay
Brave Leo
Best for a built-in assistant not tied to a Google account
How they compare to Gemini in Chrome
Four of the five score higher than Gemini in Chrome does, and each wins on a different axis. Skim the highlights or click through for the full review.
Comet · 4.5/5
Best for agentic browsing you do not have to subscribe to.
Comet is Perplexity's own browser with the Comet Assistant built in, the closest thing here to what Gemini in Chrome is trying to be. You ask the assistant about whatever you have open and it can also act: Perplexity's own examples include comparing how outlets cover a story, drafting an email reply that shares your schedule and turning a syllabus into a study plan. Perplexity released Comet to everyone for free, and its site states it is “Available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android”. The one paid add-on is Comet Plus, a $5 a month standalone subscription for premium publisher content, which Perplexity includes at no extra cost with Perplexity Pro and Max. Line that up against auto browse and the gap is wide: Google's agentic tier needs a paid AI Pro or Ultra plan, is limited to the US and to users 18 or over, is capped at 20 or 200 requests a day, and is not offered on iPhone or iPad. If what you actually want is an assistant that will do multi-step web jobs for you, on a phone as well as a laptop, without another subscription, Comet is the one to install. The trade is that search answers come from Perplexity rather than Google, and, like any agent that reads live pages, it can be steered by malicious page content, so supervise it on sensitive accounts.
Dia · 4.2/5
Best for context that lives in Slack and Notion, not only Google.
Dia is the browser from The Browser Company of New York, the team behind Arc, and it attacks the one thing Gemini in Chrome will not do: reach outside Google. Ask Dia answers questions about any page and pulls context from the tools you connect, which Dia's pricing page lists as Slack, Gmail, Notion, Outlook, GitHub, Google Calendar and Figma. The pricing is the opposite shape to Google's: the free Better Browser tier is a real browser, with profiles, tab groups, split view, a built-in ad and tracking blocker and cross-device sync, but it carries no AI at all. Better Answers is $20 a month and adds Ask Dia and chat across your tools. Better Days is $100 a month and adds roughly six times the tasks and chats plus a daily Morning Brief, reports and meeting prep, and every new user gets a 14-day trial of it with no credit card. Dia's site currently states “Available for macOS · Windows coming soon”, which is the catch: Gemini in Chrome runs on Windows and Chromebook Plus today. Usage is metered in Tasks, so an allowance is hard to forecast. Pick Dia when your day is a Mac and the answers you need are scattered across Slack threads and Notion docs rather than Gmail.
Sider · 4.3/5
Best for adding model choice without changing browsers.
Sider does not ask you to leave Chrome. It is a sidebar extension that opens on any page and lets you chat with several frontier model families instead of one, the single thing Gemini in Chrome cannot offer. Its pricing page describes four parts: Chat across models, Hand for automating tasks on real websites, Code for customizing how a site behaves, and Create for images, video, slides and documents. Individual plans are listed in US dollars as Nano US$10, Lite US$25, Pro US$50 and Max US$100 a month, with a yearly option advertised on the same page at 17% off, and there is a free tier to start on. Sider states that all plans include all features, and that the tiers differ by monthly credits and by the dedicated cloud computer attached, which runs Hand around the clock. That is a different answer to the agent question: auto browse runs in your own tabs under a daily cap, while Sider rents you a machine that keeps working after you close the laptop. The known weak spot is the credit system: premium models drain credits quickly, and unused credits expire at the end of the billing month.
Merlin AI · 4.4/5
Best for multi-model access at the lowest yearly outlay.
Merlin AI is the other sidebar, and it is the cheaper one. A keyboard shortcut, Cmd+M on Mac or Ctrl+M on Windows, opens a context-aware assistant on whatever page you are on, with site-specific workflows layered on top: a Gmail reply assistant, a LinkedIn comment generator, a YouTube summarizer, an AI panel on Google Search results and PDF chat. On the annual option Merlin's pricing page lists Pro as billed $228 for a year, and Teams as billed $180 per seat for a year with a minimum team size of two seats. Teams adds member management, a larger context window on all models, a usage dashboard and SOC 2, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance, the kind of paperwork a work or school account administrator asks for. There is a free tier. Two cautions: Merlin states it enforces fair use limits proportional to the price you pay after discount, so heavy use is bounded even on Pro, and your prompts pass through Merlin's servers on the way to the model providers, a different trust decision from keeping everything inside Google. Merlin's site now lists a web app, the Chrome extension, a Mac desktop app and mobile apps with synced chats, closing the mobile gap our review flagged.
Brave Leo · 4.4/5
Best for a built-in assistant not tied to a Google account.
Brave Leo is the same idea as Gemini in Chrome, an assistant welded into the browser sidebar, built by a company whose pitch is not watching you. Brave states plainly that “Brave Leo is free to use”, and that free and Premium users get the latest models from Mixtral, Anthropic's Claude and Meta's Llama, with Premium adding higher usage limits and faster responses. Brave's premium page lists Leo AI Premium at $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year, and Brave states one subscription covers up to five devices across Android, Linux, macOS and Windows. The contrast with Google is the point. Gemini in Chrome requires you to sign in to Chrome and is unavailable in Incognito; Leo is a browser feature you can use without handing the assistant a signed-in identity, and Brave states chats are not linked to your account, are not used for model training, and are not stored beyond the session by default. What you give up is Google: Leo lives only inside Brave, cannot reach your Gmail the way Gemini in Chrome does, and has no equivalent of auto browse. If the deciding factor is who sees your browsing, that trade is worth making.
Which one to pick
- → Comet if you want the agent. It scores 4.5/5, the highest here, it is free on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, and it does not put the acting part behind a subscription, a country and a daily cap
- → Sider if you like Chrome and only want what Google will not give you: a choice of model on the same page, plus a cloud machine that keeps running tasks after you close the lid
- → Merlin AI if budget is the constraint. Pro billed $228 for a year is the cheapest multi-model sidebar here, and Teams at $180 per seat for a year brings the compliance paperwork your administrator will want
- → Brave Leo if privacy decides it. Free to use, $14.99 a month for Premium, and no requirement to sign the assistant in to your Google identity
- → Dia if you are on a Mac and the context you need sits in Slack, Notion or Figma rather than Gmail. Start on the 14-day trial before committing to $20 or $100 a month
- → Stay on Gemini in Chrome if you are in a supported region, your work already runs through Gmail and the rest of Google's apps, and you would rather have an assistant that costs nothing extra and needs no install than the best one available
Other Gemini in Chrome alternatives worth knowing
Well-known options that don't yet have a full ToolChase review, so we give no score and no pricing for them here.
Monica ↗
Monica is an AI sidebar extension in the same mould as Sider and Merlin, putting several chat models on any page you visit. The choice between them usually comes down to which interface you prefer.
HARPA AI ↗
HARPA AI is a Chrome extension that pairs page-aware chat with browser automation and page monitoring, for people who want repeatable web workflows rather than one-off questions.
Opera Aria ↗
Aria is Opera's own assistant built into the Opera browser, the same shape of product as Gemini in Chrome but attached to a different browser and account.