Overview
Aside is an AI browser launched in 2026 and backed by Y Combinator, built around a simple premise: instead of summarizing a task, the agent should finish it. It is a full Chromium browser with an agentic harness baked in — you hand it a logged-in session and it clicks, types, and navigates across the websites you already use, from cancelling a subscription to pulling an invoice out of a vendor portal. The differentiator versus a sidebar assistant is impersonation: Aside becomes a version of you that knows your context and can work several tasks in parallel or on a schedule, while you stay in control through per-login permission levels and a final confirmation before anything sends, pays, or deletes. It runs locally and encrypted, and can tap your existing Claude or ChatGPT subscription, or be driven by a coding agent over MCP or CLI.
Key Features
- Task-completing agent, not a summarizer — give it a real errand (a refund, a DMV form, a booking) and it works through the website end to end rather than handing you a how-to.
- Signed-in account reuse — an integrated password manager and passkey support let it re-authenticate without exposing your raw credentials, so it operates inside the accounts you already have.
- Permission tiers and final confirm — you control which logins it may use, and it asks before crucial actions like send, pay, or delete, keeping risky steps human-approved.
- Parallel and scheduled routines — recurring chores become routines that run on a timer, and multiple tasks can progress at once instead of queuing behind you.
- Local-first and encrypted — the browser and agent loop run on your machine with encryption, so sensitive sessions are not shipped to a third-party cloud by default.
- MCP and CLI for coding agents — developers can give Claude Code or Codex browser access through Aside’s interface, extending an agent’s reach to the live web.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | For |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Download, 500 monthly credits to run real tasks |
| Paid credits | Usage-based | Extra credits beyond the free allowance; rates on aside.cool |
Aside is a free download with 500 monthly credits to try real work; heavier usage is billed on a credit basis. Paid credit pricing is confirmed on the official site and subject to change.
Comparison
vs. Manus: Manus is a cloud agent that spins up its own environment to research and produce deliverables. Aside keeps the work inside your real, logged-in browser sessions, which is what makes it good at bureaucracy (refunds, forms, bookings) that a sandbox cannot touch.
vs. OpenClaw: OpenClaw is a self-hosted local agent that connects to chat apps and scripts tasks on your machine. Aside is a full browser with a deeper agentic harness for visual, click-through web work rather than command-line automation.
vs. MultiOn: MultiOn pioneered agentic browser actions but ran as an extension. Aside ships as a complete browser with local execution and encryption, betting that a dedicated agentic surface beats a bolt-on bar.