Dia vs Safari

We make Yab, the third column.facts checked Oct 9 ↓

Dia is the AI browser The Browser Company builds now instead of Arc. It is Chromium-based, for Macs with Apple silicon and, since October 2026, Windows, and its AI chats with your tabs and the tools you connect.

Safari is Apple’s browser for Mac, iPhone and iPad, on WebKit, with Apple Intelligence for summaries and tab topics. Safari 27 also lets outside agents like Claude Code drive it over MCP.

The short answer

Pick Dia

if you want the current browser from Arc’s makers, with Arc import and tabs down the side as a setting
if you want AI that chats across your tabs, Gmail, Slack and Notion, and will pay for it
if you want a free browser with an ad blocker and no AI

Pick Safari

if you use a Mac and an iPhone and want your tabs and passwords on both
if you want AI that runs on your Mac or on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute
if you build sites and want Claude Code or Codex to test them in WebKit

Or Yabours

if you miss Arc and want spaces, pins and folders kept, on a Mac
if you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT and want it to work in your signed-in tabs
if you want Claude Code, Codex or Cursor to drive a real browser over MCP

At a glance

Dia and Safari, with Yab beside them for a Mac.

Dia vs Safari
What	Dia	Safari	Yab
Made by	The Browser Company (Atlassian)	Apple	Serafim Korablev
Status	Updated	Updated	Updated
Runs on	Mac and Windows	Mac and iPhone	Mac
Phone app	None	Built into iPhone and iPad; syncs tabs, bookmarks, history and passwords via iCloud	Not yet
Price	Browser free; AI on Better Answers $20/month or Better Days $100/month	Free with macOS; Apple Intelligence is free on Macs with M1 or later	Free; its AI runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan
AI	Chat about pages, on its own AI service	Chat about pages, on its own AI service	An agent that works in pages, on your Claude or ChatGPT plan
Driven by outside agents	No	MCP	MCP and a command line
Engine	Chromium	WebKit	WebKit
Tabs down the side	A setting	No	Yes
Spaces	Yes	Yes	Yes
Split View	Yes	No	Yes
Extensions	Chrome Web Store	Safari’s, from the App Store	Chrome Web Store
Ad blocker	Built in	No	Built in
Open source	No	No	No

Checked October 9, 2026 on each maker’s own pages, linked under Sources. Prices are per month, in US dollars.

Where they differ

What separates them, area by area. Where one plainly has more, it says who; where it comes down to taste, it says so.

AIa matter of taste

Both have AI to ask about pages, and neither does the clicking for you. Dia chats with your tabs and the tools you connect, like Gmail, Slack and Notion, and drafts mail and invites; there is no documented agent that works through sites. Apple Intelligence sums up pages, sorts tabs into topics and watches a page for price drops, and the Passwords app can change weak passwords for you; no agent that works through sites.

Agents like Claude Code and CodexSafari leads

Dia has no MCP server or command line for outside agents. Safari can be driven over MCP, through safaridriver --mcp in Safari 27, once you allow remote automation and outside agents.

Tabs and windowsDia leads

Dia has tabs down the side as a setting, spaces, Split View, folders in the sidebar and tabs that sleep. Safari has spaces.

PriceSafari leads

Dia: Browser free; AI on Better Answers $20/month or Better Days $100/month. Safari: Free with macOS; Apple Intelligence is free on Macs with M1 or later.

Where it runseven

Dia runs on Mac and Windows. Safari runs on Mac and iPhone. On a Mac, Dia needs macOS 14 or later and Safari needs macOS 15 or later. Dia has no phone app. On the phone, Safari: built into iPhone and iPad; syncs tabs, bookmarks, history and passwords via iCloud.

Engine and extensionsa matter of taste

Dia is built on Chromium, as Chrome is; Safari on WebKit, the engine Safari uses. Dia takes extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Safari from the App Store, as Safari extensions.

PrivacyDia leads

Dia has an ad blocker built in. Dia’s chat goes through its servers to Anthropic, OpenAI and Google; chats and history stay on your Mac, and content sharing is on by default, kept 30 days. Safari has no ad blocker of its own. Apple Intelligence runs on the Mac or on Private Cloud Compute, which Apple says doesn’t store what you ask or make it accessible to Apple.

What their pages don’t lead with

Real limits, from the makers’ own words and our own use.

Dia

AI costs $20 or $100 a month for new users; the free plan has none after a 14-day trial
On a Mac it needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later
Its AI chats and drafts, but there is no documented agent that works through sites
No MCP server or command line for outside agents

Safari

Apple devices only
Tabs only across the top, and no Split View of two tabs
Extensions only from the App Store, in Safari’s format
Its AI needs a Mac with M1 or later and macOS 27

Yab, honestly

Mac only: macOS 15.4 or later, no Windows, iPhone or Android
New: first released in September 2026
Its AI needs a Claude or ChatGPT plan; ChatGPT’s free plan may work with low limits
WebKit, as in Safari: a site tested only in Chrome can misbehave
Closed source

What changed lately

October 6, 2026Dia: Dia 1.0 for Windows released
September 17, 2026Safari: Apple documented Safari 27’s MCP server for outside AI agents
September 14, 2026Safari: Safari 27 shipped with AI tab topics, Notify Me and Describe an Extension
August 17, 2026Dia: Paid AI plans started rolling out to new Mac users
October 21, 2025Dia: Atlassian completed its acquisition of The Browser Company

Questions

Is Dia free?

The browser is; its AI isn’t. Browser free; AI on Better Answers $20/month or Better Days $100/month.

Is Safari free?

Yes. Free with macOS; Apple Intelligence is free on Macs with M1 or later.

Which has an AI agent, Dia or Safari?

Neither has an agent that does tasks in your pages. Dia chats with your tabs and the tools you connect, like Gmail, Slack and Notion, and drafts mail and invites; there is no documented agent that works through sites. Apple Intelligence sums up pages, sorts tabs into topics and watches a page for price drops, and the Passwords app can change weak passwords for you; no agent that works through sites.

Which runs on Windows, Dia or Safari?

Dia does. Safari runs on Mac and iPhone.

Do Dia and Safari have phone apps?

Safari does. Dia has no phone app. On the phone, Safari: built into iPhone and iPad; syncs tabs, bookmarks, history and passwords via iCloud.

Can I move from Safari to Dia?

Yes: Dia’s own help says it brings in from Safari.

Is there a third option on a Mac?

Yab, Yet Another Browser, is free for the Mac: tabs down the side with spaces, folders and Split View, as in Dia; an agent that works in your signed-in tabs, on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Claude Code, Codex and any MCP client can drive it too. It runs on WebKit, the engine Safari uses, and takes Chrome extensions. It is Mac only, and new.

More comparisons

Comet vs Dia Atlas vs Dia Opera Neon vs Dia Aside vs Dia Dia vs Chrome Dia vs Edge Dia vs Firefox Dia alternatives Yab vs Dia Safari vs Chrome Edge vs Safari Firefox vs Safari Brave vs Safari Opera vs Safari Arc vs Safari Comet vs Safari Safari alternatives Yab vs Safari

Sources, read October 9, 2026. Something out of date? Write to hello@serafimlabs.io and we fix it.

Yab, Yet Another Browser.

Free for the Mac. Arc’s sidebar, your own Claude or ChatGPT as the agent, Chrome extensions on WebKit.

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