NanoBrowser alternative
NanoBrowser, the open-source AI agent for Chrome, has not shipped a release since 22 November 2025, and the pull requests people wrote for it are still waiting. Browsentic keeps the part you liked, an agent in a side panel beside your tab, and drops the API key: it runs the agent you already have, in the browser you already use, Firefox included.
Where each one stands
Every spike is a week in which the project tagged a release, taller when it tagged more than one. Both lines run to the day this page was checked.
NanoBrowser
14 tagged versions between 2025-03-04 and 2025-11-22. No release since 22 November 2025.
Browsentic
25 tagged versions between 2026-09-30 and 2026-08-20.
The difference that decides it
NanoBrowser carries an agent inside the extension, and you feed it an API key. Browsentic carries no agent at all: it hands your tab to the one you already run on your computer.
NanoBrowser
Side panel
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An agent loop, inside the extension
A Planner and a Navigator, each on a model you pick
A model provider’s API
OpenAI Anthropic Gemini DeepSeek Groq
API key sk-••••••••••••••••
Tokens Billed to that key
Browsentic
Side panel
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Browsentic, on your computer
A small daemon on 127.0.0.1
The agent CLI you already have
Claude Code Codex Antigravity Mistral Vibe
API key None
Tokens On the sign-in you already have
NanoBrowser can also run a local model through Ollama, which costs nothing but your hardware and gives up some reliability.
Side by side
Read off NanoBrowser’s repository and documentation on 1 October 2026. If it ships again, an issue is the fastest way to get this page corrected.
| Browsentic | NanoBrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| The shape of it | ||
| What it is | A browser extension with a side panel, plus a small daemon on your computer | A Chrome extension with a side panel |
| Who does the thinking | The agent CLI you already have: Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Cursor CLI, Qwen Code or OpenCode | Its own Planner and Navigator agents, inside the extension |
| Model access | No API key anywhere: it spawns the CLI you are signed in to | Your API key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Groq and others, or a local model through Ollama |
| What it costs | Nothing: the work runs on the agent you already have | Free, plus the tokens billed to your key |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Still maintained | Yes: v0.7.14 on 30 September 2026 | No release since 22 November 2025 |
| Where it runs | ||
| Browsers | Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and other Chromium browsers, and Firefox as a signed add-on | Chrome and Edge. Not Firefox |
| Installing it | One line, or the Mac or Windows app; then load the extension and pair | One click in the Chrome Web Store |
| A desktop app | Mac and Windows apps that install, update and run everything | None |
| From your editor | Optional: it is also an MCP server, so Claude Code, Cursor or Zed can drive the same tab | No |
| What it can do | ||
| Voice | Hands-free: talk to it, or hold a key to talk, wherever the browser supports speech | A microphone button for dictation |
| On a schedule | Scheduled tasks: once, on chosen days or every few hours, each in a background tab | No |
| Watching a page | Monitors: “watch this upload and tell me when it is done”, with no agent polling it | No |
| Show it a job once | Recordings: do it yourself once, later say “do it like last time” | Replays a past task, off by default |
| A site’s own tools | Calls the WebMCP tools a site registers for agents | An unmerged pull request (#341) |
| Trust | ||
| Before it commits | A policy for submitting, uploading and leaving the run’s sites, tunable per site | A basic firewall: lists of URLs to allow and deny |
| Your passwords | Sealed into placeholders: the agent types them without ever reading them | No equivalent documented |
| Keys at rest | There are none to keep | Your provider keys, in extension storage |
| Analytics | None | Optional anonymous analytics, added in v0.1.12 |
No equivalent in NanoBrowser
Nothing to paste into a settings page and nothing to revoke later. It spawns the agent CLI you already signed in to, so a long job costs what your plan already costs.
Chrome, Edge, Brave and Arc, plus a Mozilla-signed Firefox add-on that updates itself. NanoBrowser supports Chrome and Edge, and never supported Firefox.
Put the panel away and talk to the page, or hold a key to talk over what it is doing, in Chrome, Edge and the other Chromium browsers. NanoBrowser stops at a microphone button for dictation.
A scheduled task keeps an instruction and the page it starts on, and runs it once, on chosen days or every few hours, in a background tab of its own.
Credentials reach the agent as sealed placeholders. It can type one into the right field, and never sees, repeats or sends the real value.
Switch between eight agent CLIs in one click. And if you live in a terminal, the same browser is an optional MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor or Zed.
Credit where it is due
A comparison you cannot lose is not a comparison. These are real, and for some people they are the deciding ones.
NanoBrowser installs from the Chrome Web Store and runs entirely inside the browser. Browsentic needs a small daemon and an agent CLI on your computer, even if the Mac and Windows apps set both up for you.
NanoBrowser lets you choose a model per agent, or run fully local through Ollama. Browsentic runs whichever models your agent CLI offers, and no further.
NanoBrowser’s interface is translated into Brazilian Portuguese and Traditional Chinese. Browsentic’s panel and settings are in English only.
If you run no agent CLI today and need a browser agent twice a month, a pay-as-you-go key can cost less than any plan. Browsentic assumes you already have an agent.
Coming from NanoBrowser
There is nothing to import. NanoBrowser kept your API keys and a list of saved tasks; Browsentic needs no keys, and a saved task is only a sentence.
01
One line on a Mac or on Windows, or npx browsentic setup anywhere with Node.js 20. It starts the daemon, lays down the extension and finds the agent CLI you already have.
02
Load the extension and paste the pairing code. NanoBrowser can stay installed while you try it: Chrome gives each extension its own side panel.
03
A task you bookmarked in NanoBrowser is a plain instruction, so paste it into the panel as it is. The ones you ran every morning can become scheduled tasks.
04
Once you are done with NanoBrowser, remove it, then revoke the API key you pasted into it at the provider’s console. Browsentic never needs one.
npx browsentic setup
The short version
Stay on NanoBrowser only if you need a fully local model through Ollama, or a panel in Portuguese or Chinese, and can live with software that no longer gets fixes.
Pick Browsentic if you already run Claude Code, Codex or another agent CLI, want no API key in your browser, use Firefox, or want it working while you are away: on a schedule, by voice, or from your editor.
Questions
Not by any visible measure. Its last release, v0.1.13, came out on 22 November 2025. Since then the repository has had two commits, both to its README and store description, and none of the 29 pull requests opened since has been merged. Its README now links to the team’s other product, a plugin directory for DeepSeek Harness. The extension still installs and runs; it just no longer gets fixes, and browser agents break as sites and models change.
If you already run an agent CLI such as Claude Code, Codex or Antigravity, Browsentic is the closest fit: the same side panel beside your tab, driven by that agent instead of one built into the extension, with no API key, and in Firefox as well as every Chromium browser. It is free, MIT licensed and released every week or so.
NanoBrowser carries its own agents, a Planner and a Navigator, and runs them on the API key you paste into it. Browsentic carries no agent: a small daemon on your computer spawns the agent CLI you already have, so there is no key and no per token bill. It also adds scheduled tasks, hands-free voice, recordings, sealed passwords, Firefox, and an optional MCP server for your editor. NanoBrowser is easier to install: one click from the Chrome Web Store.
No. Browsentic spawns the agent CLI you already signed in to: Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Mistral Vibe, Grok Build, Cursor CLI, Qwen Code or OpenCode. There is no key to paste into the extension, none stored in your browser, and no per token bill.
Yes, which NanoBrowser never did. Firefox gets a Mozilla-signed add-on that updates itself. Nine tools that depend on Chrome’s DevTools Protocol are missing there; everything else works the same as in Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc.
Yes. Chrome gives each extension its own side panel, so both can sit in the toolbar and you switch between them. When you remove NanoBrowser, revoke the API key you gave it at your provider as well.
Yes. It is MIT licensed, free to use, and needs no account and no subscription of its own. The source is on GitHub, and the daemon runs on your computer, so there is no hosted service that could be switched off.
Checked against NanoBrowser’s GitHub repository and documentation, 1 October 2026.
The library NanoBrowser built its page reading on, against a side panel driving your logged-in tab.
Another agent people relied on that went away, and why an extension you hold the source to cannot.
One command, a pairing code, and the browser you already have open.
Free and open source. No API key, no subscription, no account. A fresh install connects to nothing until you pair it yourself.
npx browsentic setup