Opera vs Opera Neon in 2026

Opera Neon is not a newer Opera. It is a separate, subscription-only product built around AI agents that carry out tasks rather than a browser that displays pages, and it costs $19.90 a month. Opera is free. That framing matters more than any feature comparison, because these are aimed at completely different decisions.

What Neon is

Agents. Neon Chat answers questions, Do carries out multi-step tasks like booking a trip, and Make builds things — web apps, videos, edited documents — while you watch. The subscription bundles access to current frontier models rather than making you pay for several separately, which is the actual pitch: one fee instead of three or four.

It went public in December 2025 after a closed founders phase, so it is a real product rather than a preview, and it scores 5 for AI features. Standard Opera also scores 5, but for a different thing — a capable assistant in a sidebar, included free.

What it gives up

More than you would expect. Opera Neon scores 1 for extensions against Opera's 4, 2 for customizability against 3, and 2 for privacy against 3 — the lowest privacy score of any Opera product. It scores 3 for both speed and ease where Opera scores 4, and runs on Windows and macOS only, against Opera's five platforms. It has no ad blocker beyond the basics and no reader mode.

That is the shape of an early product concentrating everything on one idea. If the agents are not doing real work for you, what remains is a slower browser with fewer features and a monthly bill.

Which should you choose?

Choose Opera for browsing. It is free, complete, fast, on every platform, and its included assistant covers what most people want from AI in a browser without a subscription.

Choose Opera Neon only if you would otherwise be paying for multiple AI subscriptions and want agents that act rather than answer. Treat it as an AI product you also browse in, priced accordingly, and try it against your actual workflow before committing — the agentic browser category is young, and a year ago one of its most prominent entrants shut down inside twelve months.