Strawberry’s AI companions in the company’s own promotional artwork. Image: Strawberry
Strawberry, a free AI browser from Stockholm that left beta on October 26, promises in its launch artwork to “find 100 leads in less than 5 minutes”. Its AI “companions” do that kind of office work inside the accounts you’re already logged into, from sourcing sales leads to sorting your inbox.
The free version runs on AI models Strawberry fine-tunes itself “for agent work” from open-weight models, including ones from France’s Mistral, a company spokesperson told MadRobot. Paying users can switch the companions to Claude, GPT, Gemini or Grok instead. Strawberry declined to name the other open-weight models it uses, and its claims couldn’t be independently verified.
What is Strawberry browser, and is it free?
Strawberry is built on Chromium, the open-source code behind Google Chrome. It was founded by chief executive Charles Maddock, Arian Hanifi and Sebastian Thunman, and raised $6m in October 2025 in a round led by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures, Tech.eu reported. Version 1.0 gave the companions new faces and a “Companion Plaza” where they hang out between jobs. Strawberry launched it with a short film:
The browser is free to download for Mac and Windows, and the free plan gives 500 credits a month with no card needed. Paid plans cost $20, $85 and $250 a month for 6,000, 25,000 and 75,000 credits, according to its pricing page, and extra credits cost $0.01 each. Strawberry declined to comment on how many credits a typical task uses, saying it varies too much, and on how many people use it or pay for it.
It is available in most countries, with some regional restrictions, the spokesperson said. Strawberry declined to say which countries are excluded. There is no Linux version yet, mobile support is limited, and Strawberry isn’t open source.
Strawberry vs ChatGPT and Comet
Maddock told Tech.eu who he sees as the competition:
I would say that we compete much more with the big agent platforms like Claude, ChatGPT, Grok Bot and Gemini.
Charles Maddock, Strawberry CEO, to Tech.eu
Strawberry argues its companions are different because they are persistent, with their own memory, files, skills and scheduled routines, can run several agents at once, and can be shared by a team. ChatGPT’s Chrome extension can now act inside your open tabs in its Work mode.
In Strawberry’s own benchmark of 12 business tasks, it scored 99.2 out of 100, ahead of Perplexity’s Comet on 90.8 and OpenAI’s Atlas, which OpenAI has wound down, on 73.3. Strawberry designed the tests, and the results are scored by an AI model rather than by people.
Is Strawberry browser safe?
Strawberry says passwords, browsing history and cookies stay on your device, that user data it holds is stored in the EU, and that it has SOC 2 Type I and Type II audits. Its pricing page promises “no training on your content”.
When a companion reads a page, “what it needs goes to the model that processes it”, the spokesperson said. Strawberry declined to comment on whether model providers keep that content, pointing to each provider’s own policies. The Companion Plaza, where companions “chat with each other about their day, about you, and about the sites you visited”, runs through Strawberry’s own service rather than on the device.
The company says nothing goes out without the user’s approval, though “no system is perfect”, and advises against handing companions “legal sign-offs, large money moves, anything irreversible”.
Strawberry and LinkedIn
Many of Strawberry’s own examples involve LinkedIn. Its home page shows a companion “researching companies on LinkedIn and updating your spreadsheet”, three of the 12 benchmark tasks use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Recruiter, and the launch artwork shows its 100-lead search running on LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s User Agreement bans using software, bots or browser add-ons to scrape profiles or automate activity on the site.
Strawberry says a companion works inside the user’s own browser session, using “your own tabs, your own logins and your own approvals”, and “does nothing you could not do yourself in the same tab”. Strawberry declined to comment on LinkedIn’s terms. Big sites are still deciding how to treat AI agents: Amazon blocked Meta’s Muse agent in September, while Walmart opened its doors to them in October.
Why it matters
AI browsers like Strawberry promise to take repetitive office work off your hands, and a European start-up building its own models on open-weight ones such as Mistral’s sets it apart from rivals that rely entirely on the big American labs. It also competes with those labs, so anyone trying it at work should check where page content goes and what the sites they use allow.
Frequently asked questions
Is Strawberry browser free?
Yes. Strawberry is free to download for Mac and Windows, and the free plan includes 500 credits a month with no card needed. Paid plans cost $20, $85 or $250 a month, and extra credits cost $0.01 each.
Is Strawberry browser safe?
Strawberry says passwords, browsing history and cookies stay on your device, user data it holds is stored in the EU, it doesn’t train on your content, and companions ask for approval before anything goes out. Page content a companion reads is sent to the AI model that processes it, and the company says “no system is perfect”.
What AI does Strawberry browser use?
The free plan runs on models Strawberry fine-tunes itself from open-weight models, including Mistral’s. On paid plans you can also choose Claude, GPT, Gemini or Grok for each companion.
Is Strawberry browser open source, and does it work on Linux?
No. Strawberry isn’t open source, there is no Linux version yet, and mobile support is limited. It runs on Mac and Windows and is available in most countries, with some regional restrictions.
Who makes Strawberry browser?
Strawberry is a Stockholm start-up founded by Charles Maddock, Arian Hanifi and Sebastian Thunman. It raised $6m in October 2025 in a round led by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures.
Sources: Strawberry 1.0 release notes, Strawberry 1.0 launch film, Strawberry press kit, Strawberry pricing, Strawberry benchmark results and spec, LinkedIn User Agreement, Tech.eu, email answers from Strawberry to MadRobot.
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