The Browser Company says the Arc browser will shut down on December 22. On that date accounts are deactivated and Arc stops working on Mac and Windows. The company wants Arc users to move to Dia, its AI browser, and says bookmarks, extensions, passwords and history carry over automatically.
When does Arc stop working?
According to How-To Geek, the shutdown happens in stages:
- Now: new Arc accounts can no longer be created.
- November 23: on Android and iPhone, sign-in, tab sync and AI features such as Browse for Me stop working.
- December 22: Arc stops working on Mac and Windows, every account is deactivated, and Arc Search leaves the Google Play Store.
- 30 days later: account data is deleted.
Until then, Digital Trends reports, Arc only gets maintenance updates. Don’t expect new features, which is one more reason to move on calmly instead of waiting for the last day.
None of this is a surprise. The company announced Arc’s end-of-life plan in May 2025 without giving a date. CEO Josh Miller said at the time that Arc hadn’t caught on the way the company hoped, because it was too different from what people already used and there wasn’t enough reason to switch.
What moves over to Dia?
Engadget says bookmarks, extensions, passwords and history transfer automatically. Digital Trends adds that tab groups, folders and Spaces, the separate workspaces Arc uses to keep things like work and personal browsing apart, can also be moved. How-To Geek notes that the latest Arc release lets you export your data and import it into Dia later. If you plan to switch browsers at all, open Arc and run that export now, even if you haven’t decided where you’re going.
Dia was announced last year and became available to Arc members on June 11, 2025. It’s a fairly standard AI browser: a built-in chatbot understands context across several open tabs, summarizes emails and YouTube videos, and builds a daily “morning brief” from your calendar, inbox and web links. The company says the AI features are optional, a nod to people who don’t want that in their browser. None of the sources mention Dia’s price.
What are the alternatives?
How-To Geek splits the options into two groups, and the split helps you choose:
| Engine | Browsers | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Chromium (the same base as Chrome) | Opera, Microsoft Edge, Brave | People who want the experience closest to what Arc offered |
| Gecko (Mozilla’s engine) | Firefox, Tor Browser, Zen Browser | People who want a clean break from Google’s technology; switching takes a bit more work |
Brave focuses on privacy. On iPhone and iPad, these browsers run on Apple’s WebKit engine, so the underlying technology doesn’t change there.
Should you stay with Dia or switch?
If what you loved about Arc was Spaces and split view, Dia is the lowest-friction move: your data comes along and the interface feels familiar. Arc also shipped with a built-in password manager, live captions and uBlock Origin out of the box, so if you relied on those, check whether your next browser has equivalents.
If you never touched the AI features and just want a simple browser, one of the alternatives above may suit you better. The practical question is how much of your tabs you want a browser to read. That kind of feature is spreading, as with the ChatGPT Chrome extension that reads your tabs and does tasks. And if you’re thinking about handing logins to an AI assistant, read first how 1Password wants to do it without exposing your passwords.
A simple plan for the next few weeks: export your Arc data today, try Dia or another browser for a week, and only then uninstall Arc. If you use Arc on your phone, the date that matters is November 23, well before the desktop cutoff.
