Dia Review

First Impressions

I’ll admit, I was skeptical of Dia at first. The pivot felt like another “shiny new toy,” and I wasn’t sure it would live up to Arc. But when I received a beta invite, I decided to give it a shot.

To my surprise, Dia turned out to be a solid browser. While a little bare-bones in places, it shines in one key area: its AI chat feature.

The AI Chat Experience

Dia lets you “chat” with tabs—though chat is a loose term here. Competing browsers like Edge, Chrome, and Firefox also integrate AI assistants or allow you to add ChatGPT/Claude, but Dia feels more polished and mature in execution.

The most impressive feature is multi-tab chat, where you can juxtapose information across tabs. For example, while working in New Relic, Dia analyzed the data, explained the spikes in a graph, and even suggested fixes. When I tried the same task in Edge with Copilot, I got nothing more than a basic summary and an error.

The chat window itself is flexible: you can pin it to a sidebar or float it over the page. That small customization makes it far more usable day to day.

UI and Design

The overall UI is fine, though not particularly remarkable. In fact, I prefer the design and vertical tab/sidebar UI in Edge and Firefox—and Edge surprised me with how close it came to recreating Arc’s feel.

Dia did eventually release its own vertical sidebar, but it’s static: it doesn’t collapse or hide, and the tabs feel basic compared to Arc’s.

New Tabs and Search

Opening a new tab in Dia drops you straight into the chat input. From there you can search the web or chat with the AI. Depending on your query, Dia sometimes presents information in a cleaner UI.

For example, when I asked for restaurants near me, it displayed a list of summaries with links, opening them neatly beside the chat. It’s a thoughtful touch that differentiates it from a typical AI search overlay.

Personalization

Personalization is functional but minimal. You can give it instructions and it remembers some context, but it feels limited compared to what I’d like. Ideally, Dia would allow users to set up rules or behaviors, similar to GPTs in ChatGPT.

Skills

A standout feature is Skills. These are custom commands you can create or grab from a shared gallery, triggered with /skill inside the chat. They function much like GPT instructions—sets of rules for the AI to follow.

So far, they’re interesting but not essential. Writing-related skills, for instance, can insert text directly into emails, messages, or posts, which is handy but not groundbreaking yet.

Performance

Performance has been strong. I haven’t experienced major slowdowns, and Dia consistently feels faster than Chrome or Firefox.

That said, there’s a minor address bar bug: the theme color adapts to the header of the site you’re on (e.g., a red header turns the bar red). Occasionally, if a site changes state or loads differently, the bar shows the wrong color—like white instead of red. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s a quirk of dynamic theming.

Pricing

Recently, The Browser Company announced that Dia will cost $20 per month, starting in late August. For now, I plan to at least trial the subscription, but I’m unsure if I’ll stick with it long-term.

Frankly, $20 feels steep for the features offered. If unlimited chats are the main draw, I might just pair ChatGPT with Firefox instead.

Final Verdict

Overall, I’d give Dia a 4/5. The AI chat and performance are strong, and Skills show promise. But the static sidebar and weak vertical tab implementation hold it back.

If Dia ever nails the collapsible sidebar and vertical tab experience that Arc had, it could easily jump to a 5/5.