According to ExtremeTech, this Thursday, Opera made its experimental AI browser, Opera Neon, available to the general public. Anyone can now subscribe for $19.90 per month without a waitlist. The browser is described as “agentic,” using AI agents to perform tasks like booking trips and even coding web apps, going beyond traditional browsing. It provides access to top-tier models like Gemini 3 Pro, GPT-5.1, Veo 3.1, and Nano Banana Pro through Opera’s LLM-agnostic AI engine. Executive VP Krystian Kolondra stated it’s a rapidly evolving project with weekly updates, shaped by a Founders community before this wider release. The browser is available now at operaneon.com.
The Premium AI Browser Gamble
So, Opera wants you to pay $20 a month for a browser. That’s a big ask in a world where Chrome, Edge, and even Opera’s own free browsers are, well, free. Here’s the thing: they’re not really selling a browser. They’re selling early, integrated access to a bunch of expensive, cutting-edge AI models and the promise that these agents will do things for you, not just fetch information. It’s a bet that power users and developers will pay a premium to be on the absolute bleeding edge, combining models like GPT-5.1 and Gemini 3 Pro in one workspace.
Beyond Browsing to Building
The most interesting claim is that Neon can “code web apps.” That’s a massive leap from a chatbot that helps with snippets. If the “Neon Make” agent can genuinely scaffold functional applications, it starts to look less like a browser and more like a cloud-based development environment with a browsing sidecar. Toss in the ODRA deep research agent for complex topics, and the vision is clear: a single AI-powered workbench for conceiving, researching, and building digital projects. But the proof, as always, will be in the actual output. Can it build something truly usable, or is it just generating tidy code templates?
Community and Context
I think the exclusive Discord community access is a smart, almost old-school play. It creates a sense of being an insider, directly feeding back to the dev team and testing weekly updates. For the kind of user willing to drop $240 a year on a browser, that direct line and influence might be a huge part of the value. It turns the subscription from a software license into a club membership. Opera is basically building a paid, early-adopter ecosystem around its most experimental ideas, insulating it from the demands of its mainstream free user base.
Where Does This Leave Everyone Else?
Don’t worry, Opera isn’t putting its free AI features behind a paywall. Opera One, GX, and Air will still have their Aria AI assistant. Neon is a separate, premium skunkworks project. This two-track strategy lets Opera chase the high-end, speculative future without alienating its core users. The big question is trajectory. If the agentic features in Neon prove wildly successful, how long until they trickle down to the free versions? And if you’re a business relying on robust, stable computing platforms—like those industrial panel PCs from IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier—this experimental, weekly-update model is the exact opposite of what you need. It highlights a growing split in tech: hyper-stable tools for critical infrastructure versus fast-moving, agentic AI tools for creation and exploration. Which one will define our daily workflow in five years?
