The Browser Company will shut down its Arc browser on December 22, 2026

The Browser Company has announced that Arc will be discontinued on December 22, 2026, according to a post on the Arc website. The Verge reports that the company had already shifted its development effort to the AI-focused Dia browser last year while continuing to maintain Arc; in December, that maintenance ends and Arc goes away for good.

A staged shutdown

The deprecation unfolds in three steps, according to the announcement on Arc's website.

As of October 22, no new Arc accounts can be created. Existing members are unaffected for now, and the latest Arc release adds an option to export all data out of the app, along with a smoother import path into Dia.

On November 23, the Browse for Me feature and other AI capabilities in the mobile apps will be switched off on iOS and Android, and it will no longer be possible to sign in or sync tabs. Arc Search on iOS will keep working as a stripped-down mobile browser after that date.

December 22 is the hard cutoff. Arc will stop working on macOS and Windows, all Arc accounts will be deactivated, and personal data tied to those accounts will be deleted within 30 days. Arc Search for Android will be removed from the Google Play Store and, according to the announcement, from the devices where it is installed.

Why the company is walking away

The Browser Company frames the decision around security. It argues that keeping a browser secure demands constant, dedicated work that has only grown heavier in the age of AI, and that Dia was engineered from the start to meet current security standards. The company's entire security team will focus on Dia going forward. The announcement also claims that Dia now outperforms Arc in stability, speed and security — a self-assessment that should be read as the company's own positioning rather than independent testing.

Getting your data out

After December 22, the company says it will no longer be able to identify or retrieve Arc user data in response to data requests, so anything users want to keep must be moved before that date.

There are two paths. Users switching to Dia can import directly — either during sign-up, or at any point before the deadline through Dia's menu on macOS or Windows. The import brings over passwords, history, bookmarks, extensions, tabs, Pinned Tabs and Favorites with their custom names, Folders (renamed Tab Groups in Dia), and Spaces (renamed Profiles). Dia also offers a vertical tab sidebar for those who want the familiar Arc layout.

Users moving to another browser can export their tabs as a list of links: on macOS via Arc's Settings under Advanced, on Windows via the Export Spaces and tabs option in Settings. The Arc Search mobile apps include their own export options under settings. People who have not opened Arc in a while can reinstall the desktop app just to run an export.

Why it matters

Arc, which The Verge describes as an innovative browser, offered one of the more distinctive takes on the desktop browser in recent years: a vertical tab sidebar, Spaces for separating work and personal contexts, folders and pinned tabs. Its disappearance means users who built their workflows around those ideas now face a forced migration, and the deadlines are tight — sign-in and sync stop in November, everything else in December, with account data erased shortly after.

The shutdown is also a case study in the industry's pivot toward AI. The Browser Company is not winding down; it is consolidating the same engineering and security effort behind Dia, betting that an AI-first browser is a better investment than maintaining a well-liked but conventional one. For users, it is a reminder that even a beloved product from an active, funded company can be retired on a two-month timeline — and that export tools are worth using while they still exist.