Opera takes on Edge with Aria AI sidebar

Ever since Microsoft turned Edge into an AI showcase, it was only a matter of time before alternative browsers fired back.

Opera is rolling out Aria, a new AI sidebar now in testing across desktop and mobile. Powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT, Aria lives on the left side of the screen and helps with everyday web tasks like generating text, writing code, and answering random questions on the fly.

Web access and built-in tech support

While Aria relies on OpenAI tech under the hood, Opera gave it a couple of tweaks you don't get with standard ChatGPT.

First, Aria can pull real-time, up-to-date information directly from across the live web. You aren't stuck with a rigid knowledge cutoff.

Second, Opera trained Aria on its entire customer support documentation. If you cannot find a buried browser setting or need troubleshooting help, you can just ask Aria directly instead of digging through forums.

This isn't Opera's first brush with AI either. Back in February, the browser added a ChatGPT sidebar shortcut to summarize articles. It also experimented with contextual AI prompts that let you highlight text on any page to generate a tweet or break down a tough concept.

Right now, Aria is still invite-only. To test it, you need the developer version of Opera One on desktop or the Opera beta app on Android, plus an Opera account to join the waitlist.

Why it matters

For power users, sidebar AI is quickly becoming table stakes. Having an assistant right next to your active tab beats switching back and forth to an external chatbot window all day.

It also shows where the browser wars are heading. Microsoft set the pace by cramming Bing chat, DALL-E image generation, and upcoming Copilot integrations into Edge. Smaller players like Opera simply cannot afford to look like static web viewers anymore.

We think tapping OpenAI while grounding the bot in proprietary browser docs is a smart shortcut. It keeps development lean while making the bot genuinely useful for Opera users. The real test, though, is differentiation: when everyone wraps the exact same OpenAI models, winning comes down to UI speed, resource consumption, and staying out of the user's way.