Opera’s Neon Browser: Surf and Code Games While You Sleep!

Opera is once again broadening its browser lineup, this time with artificial intelligence taking center stage. Introducing Opera Neon, a fully capable AI browser that can navigate the web and even create games on your behalf—essentially handling life’s tedious tasks to give you more time for the enjoyable activities you cherish.

What Is Opera Neon?

Opera Neon is heralding a fresh era in web browsing and a significant leap forward for AI technology. Your browser can now operate behind the scenes, automating tasks so you can focus on what really matters.

Rather than spending time searching for train tickets for an upcoming trip or making a restaurant reservation, you can instruct Opera Neon to take care of it for you. Once you provide a prompt, Neon gets busy and will only check back with you when it needs your final approval—like when completing a booking for your review.

Opera Neon is designed to comprehend web pages intuitively, working natively within the browser. Instead of relying on remote servers for analysis, it utilizes a document object model (DOM) tree to logically navigate through web pages. This allows Neon to grasp the context of a page, including complex forms, and respond accurately.

Interestingly, Opera also claims that Neon can function offline, processing your requests via a virtual machine hosted in the cloud. This means you could ask Opera Neon to tackle a task, shut down your computer, and return later to find it has already completed your request.

Neon employs AI agents that work beyond the browser in a cloud-hosted virtual machine, allowing it to continue processing your requests even when you’re offline. For instance, users can instruct the browser to create a game, report, code snippet, or even a website—it’ll research, design, and build whatever you require.

At its essence, Opera Neon will operate like any standard browser, allowing you to browse the internet as you usually would. What sets it apart is the AI-driven focus, designed to make your life more efficient—a feature that should intrigue everyone.

Opera’s Browser Operator Comes to Life

I had the privilege of experiencing a sneak peek of Opera Neon at the Browser Days 2025 event in Lisbon, Portugal. For clarity, Opera does not ask for specific coverage of its events, and this is my first time discussing Browser Operator and Opera Neon.

It’s fascinating to see how much Browser Operator has evolved since its initial preview in Lisbon to a fully functional AI browser.

The first demonstration of the Browser Operator (the core AI technology behind Opera Neon) was surprisingly effective. During the demo, the AI managed to order a bouquet for a journalist in attendance, though it did need a gentle nudge to finalize the order—resulting in some nervous chuckles from the Opera team.

Despite that, the flowers arrived the next day, purchased by the AI with minimal input from the team.

Now, Opera has enhanced this capability further. Opera Neon integrates features from its existing Aria AI, which is capable of reading and interacting with webpages in the Opera browser while utilizing AI-driven tab commands. The Browser Operator elevates this process with a new level of automation.

Having witnessed the latest demonstrations of Opera Neon, it appears to be much more proficient than its earlier version showcased in 2025.

One of the key concerns after the original demonstration was, “I could probably do this faster myself.” This was a valid point. I had previously attempted to use another AI tool (not from Opera) to book a train ticket, but it took quite some time and struggled to find suitable options. While the Browser Agent’s demo was successful, it still required some interaction to give it a little encouragement, ultimately completing nearly all of the task.

However, with Opera Neon advancing the concept of an AI-driven browser, it looks like most of these initial challenges are being addressed, paving the way for a truly helpful desktop companion.

What Does Opera Neon Mean for Opera’s Other Browsers?

However, this doesn’t mean that Opera’s other browsers are becoming obsolete. While Opera Neon is a standalone, premium browser, Opera One R2, Opera Air, and Opera Mini will all continue to exist.

I had a conversation with Henrik Lexow, Opera’s Senior AI Product Director, who confirmed that now is the right time for AI agents and what Opera refers to as Web 4o.

Opera Neon serves as a platform for agentic AI. It empowers users to perform tasks and accomplish things that are currently impossible in any other browser, including our own. This is not a rival to our other products; by launching it this way, we aim to collaborate with the community to refine the product.

While Opera Neon isn’t quite ready for public release just yet, you can sign up at Opera Neon to become an early adopter. However, the process is invite-only, so you may have to be patient. Nonetheless, since Opera wants community input to shape Neon’s evolution, I anticipate that invites will be sent out soon.