AI Agents Published 2026-10-26

Strawberry Browser Review (2026): AI Companions, Credits, and Who the 1.0 Release Is For

How we checked: plan prices, credit allowances, and product rules come from Strawberry's official pricing page (Individual, Team, and Enterprise tabs, monthly and annual), its 1.0 and October release notes, its feature pages, and the Strawberry Docs, all checked on October 26, 2026 (US dollar prices as shown, before tax). Sources are listed at the end. We have no affiliate relationship with Strawberry. This review covers what Strawberry is, how its plans and credits work, and its documented features and limits. We don't score how well its agent completes tasks, because Strawberry publishes no per-task credit costs and results depend on your sites and prompts. Use the free 500 credits to test one real task yourself.

Verdict

Strawberry is a desktop web browser with AI agents built in. Stockholm-based Strawberry Browser Inc. released version 1.0 on October 26, 2026, after an invite-only beta and an open beta that began in February 2026. Its AI helpers are called companions. They work in the same tabs, logins, and connected apps you already use, so a companion can research 20 companies across LinkedIn and their websites, put the results in your Google Sheet, and draft follow-up emails for you to approve. You don't have to re-sign in to a separate cloud browser.

That's its real advantage over chat-first assistants: the work happens where your accounts already live. Strawberry also adds routines (scheduled or event-triggered tasks), bot-free meeting recording, and shareable companions for teams.

The catch is cost predictability. Every companion reply uses credits, not just agent runs, and Strawberry doesn't publish how many credits a typical task uses. Bigger plans also don't make credits cheaper. All three individual plans cost about $3.33–$3.40 per 1,000 credits on monthly billing.

Best for: sales, recruiting, marketing, and founder-type work that repeats across many websites and SaaS tools (lead lists, candidate sourcing, CRM updates, meeting follow-ups), and small teams that want everyone using the same trained companion. Not ideal for: Linux users (the official FAQ lists macOS and Windows only), anyone who needs automations to run while their computer is off (routines only run while Strawberry is open), and people who mainly want a chatbot or coding assistant.

What Strawberry is

Strawberry looks and works like a Chrome-style browser. It has tabs, split view, profiles, bookmarks, a password manager, and Chrome Web Store extensions, and it imports from Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Arc. Browsing on your own is free and uses no credits. When you want help, you open a chat with a companion. The companion can then:

  • Read and operate web pages: open sites, click through flows, move between tabs, and extract data. Its tabs glow in the companion's color, and you can take over at any time.
  • Use connected apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Outlook, Slack, Notion, CRMs, and applicant tracking systems. Strawberry says it supports over 2,000 integrations, plus custom MCP servers and API-key tools.
  • Run longer "agent runs" that plan first, spin up sub-agents to handle parts of a job in parallel, and leave a work trace showing every search, page, and app action.
  • Remember context through companion memory, reusable skills (saved instructions for a workflow), and companion-specific files.
  • Create files such as reports, slide decks, posters, dashboards, and spreadsheets.

You can build your own companions or "hire" one of nine official ones with preset skills and routines, such as Sales Sally (leads and outreach), Talent Theo (candidate sourcing), Executive Ellis (morning briefs and replies), Marketing Martin, and Consulting Cora. Version 1.0 itself is mostly cosmetic. You can design each companion's look, and an optional "Companion Plaza" mode shows them on the New Tab page. The substantive features arrived over the past year: routines (March), sub-agents and meeting recording (May), cross-device chat sync (August), and three chat modes, WhatsApp, and speaker-labeled transcripts (October 21).

Pricing, plan by plan

Prices from Strawberry's official pricing page, October 26, 2026. Annual billing is advertised as "2 months free".

Plan Monthly price Annual price Credits a month Key differences
Free $0 — 500 Efficient and Default modes, curated AI models, no card needed
Intern $20 $200/yr (shown as $17/mo) 6,000 Adds Expert mode, your choice of AI models, priority access at peak hours, and the option to use your ChatGPT plan to save credits
Part-Time $85 $850/yr (shown as $71/mo) 25,000 Same features as Intern
Full-Time $250 $2,500/yr (shown as $208/mo) 75,000 Same features as Intern
Credit top-ups $0.01 per credit — Any amount $10 per 1,000 credits. Purchased top-ups roll over

Every plan, including Free, lists the same core features: connected apps, AI that can use any website, interactive dashboards, memory across chats, scheduled tasks, sync across devices, and "no training on your content".

Teams pay per seat: Starter $35 (10,000 credits per seat a month), Standard $150 (40,000), and Ultra $350 (100,000) per seat per month. You can mix seat types in one team. Teams add a shared workspace with company context, central billing and admin, usage analytics by member, and spend controls. Every team includes 3 free seats, the owner's included. We couldn't confirm whether free seats get any credits, or whether team seats can be billed annually, since the Team tab shows no annual option. Enterprise is custom-priced, with pooled credits that can roll over, invoicing, SSO/MFA, and audit logs.

The credit math: what you're actually buying

Our calculations from the published prices and allowances:

Plan Cost per 1,000 credits (monthly) Cost per 1,000 credits (annual)
Intern $3.33 $2.78
Part-Time $3.40 $2.83
Full-Time $3.33 $2.78
Team Starter / Standard / Ultra seat $3.50 / $3.75 / $3.50 not shown
Top-ups $10.00 —

Three takeaways:

  1. Upgrading doesn't buy cheaper credits. It just buys more of them. Pick the plan whose allowance matches your usage. Annual billing is the only built-in discount, about 17%.
  2. Top-ups cost about three times the plan rate. Upgrading Intern to Part-Time costs $65 more a month for 19,000 extra credits. The same $65 buys only 6,500 top-up credits. So if you regularly top up more than about 6,500 credits (~$65) a month on Intern, Part-Time is cheaper. The equivalent break-even from Part-Time to Full-Time is about 16,500 top-up credits (~$165) a month.
  3. Team seats cost slightly more per credit than individual plans. A small group that doesn't need a shared workspace, central billing, or shared companions pays less on individual plans.

Valued at the top-up rate, the Free plan's 500 credits are worth $5 of usage a month.

How credits get spent (and why it's hard to predict)

Strawberry's docs are unusually candid about credits. They're also the most important part of this review:

  • Browsing alone is free. Credits are used only when a companion helps.
  • Any companion reply can use credits, including ordinary chat answers. You don't need a visible agent run. Long prompts, attached files, lots of tab context, and advanced models all cost more.
  • Agent runs, web research, app actions, and multi-step workflows usually cost more than simple chat.
  • There's no published per-task price. The docs say a credit allowance "is not a guarantee of a particular number of work hours". They recommend asking the companion for a small sample first ("do the first 10 companies, show me the output, and wait before scaling to 100").
  • Chat modes affect cost. Efficient is fastest and uses the fewest credits. Default is the everyday mode, and new chats and routines start there. Expert spends more effort on hard problems and is paid-only. On paid plans, each companion can have its own model and thinking effort for each mode.
  • Rate-limit windows exist on top of monthly credits. A short-term window can temporarily block usage even while your monthly balance is positive. Top-ups can keep you working during that window. Strawberry doesn't say how big the windows are on each plan.
  • No surprise overage bills. Teams use prepaid credits only. When no eligible credits are left, work simply pauses. Automatic refills are optional and come with a monthly spending limit you set.

To track usage, open strawberry://settings/account (Credit Usage and Available now) or the usage panel inside each chat.

Routines, meetings, and permissions

Routines turn a repeated job into an automation. Each routine has a trigger (daily, interval, cron expression, a one-off date, or an app event such as a new email or a GitHub pull request), instructions, and a companion. Since October 21, app-event routines can have an "Only if" condition, such as only invoices from your finance team. If a run finds nothing worth reporting, it can delete its own chat. Important: Strawberry says routines run only while the app is open on your computer. Anything that comes due while it's closed waits until you reopen it. For automations that must run 24/7, a server-side tool such as n8n is the better fit.

Meeting recording captures Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams calls, or in-person conversations through your microphone, without a bot joining the call. You get a transcript with speaker labels, a summary, decisions, and action items. Your companion can later answer questions about past calls. Because no bot announces itself, it's on you to tell participants you're recording and to follow your local consent rules.

Permissions decide what a companion may do alone. In strawberry://settings/ai-permissions you choose Default or Ask Always mode. For each connected app, individual actions can be set to Ask every time, Always allow, or Disable. Email approval cards are editable, so you can change the recipients, subject, and body before anything sends. Strawberry's own docs warn about two limits. First, not every read or action has its own control. Second, saved "Always allow" permissions still apply in Ask Always mode. Their advice is to start read-only and add write actions later. We agree.

Privacy and data

According to Strawberry's FAQ, docs, and pricing page:

  • Passwords, history, and cookies are stored locally on your device, and passwords are "never exposed" to Strawberry or to AI model providers.
  • Chat history syncs to your Strawberry account so you can continue on another computer. Messages, drafts, and detailed chat data are encrypted before being saved on Strawberry's servers. Chat titles and light metadata are stored separately.
  • Strawberry says it doesn't train on your content and doesn't sell your data. Its homepage says it meets SOC 2 requirements and GDPR.
  • AI work still goes to third-party models. Paid plans can choose among models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and others. Review the privacy policy if you handle sensitive client data.

Gotchas before you switch browsers

  • Shared companions are editable by recipients. Sharing a companion grants edit access to its settings, memories, and skills until you stop sharing. Chat history isn't shared.
  • Browser profiles don't isolate connected apps. Built-in app connections (Gmail, Slack, CRMs, and so on) are shared across all profiles signed into the same Strawberry account. If you work for several clients, check which connected account a task will use.
  • Public file links stay live. Anyone with a public link sees the current version of a file or folder until you revoke it, including later edits.
  • Monthly plan credits don't roll over. Only purchased top-ups do. Grants and bonus credits keep their own expiry dates.
  • The Free allowance can't be used as a reserve for team work. If you belong to a team, your free personal credits aren't used for it.
  • Platform support: macOS and Windows only, according to the official FAQ.
  • "Use your ChatGPT plan to save credits" is listed as a paid-plan feature, but the docs we checked don't explain how it works or which ChatGPT plans qualify. Don't count on it until you've seen it in the app.

Strawberry vs the alternatives

  • ChatGPT or Claude: better if you mainly want a chat assistant for writing, analysis, or coding. Strawberry's own comparison page notes that ChatGPT's cloud browser keeps its own sessions, so you sign in to sites again there. Strawberry works inside the logins you already have. Our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Perplexity pricing comparison covers those plans.
  • Perplexity: better if your main need is cited answers and research, not taking actions in your own apps.
  • n8n: better for deterministic, always-on workflows that run on a server. See our n8n pricing explainer. Strawberry is better for fuzzy, judgment-heavy browser work like research and drafting that's hard to turn into a fixed flow.

Browse everything we track in AI Agents, or see the Strawberry directory entry for its verified plan data.

FAQ

Is Strawberry free? Yes. The Free plan includes 500 credits a month, the Efficient and Default chat modes, and curated AI models, with no credit card required. Browsing without companion help never uses credits.

How much does Strawberry cost? Intern is $20 a month (6,000 credits), Part-Time $85 (25,000), and Full-Time $250 (75,000). Annual billing costs $200, $850, and $2,500 a year. Team seats cost $35, $150, or $350 per seat a month. Extra credits cost $0.01 each.

How many tasks do 6,000 credits cover? Strawberry doesn't say. Cost depends on the model, mode, context size, and how much browsing and app work a task needs, and even normal chat replies use credits. Run a small sample of your real task and check the chat's usage panel before you scale up.

Do Strawberry routines run when my computer is off? No. Routines run only while Strawberry is open on your computer. Runs that come due while it's closed wait until you open it again.

Does Strawberry send emails or change records without asking? Only if you allow it. Approvals are set per app and per action. Email approval cards let you edit the message before it sends. Avoid "Always allow" for actions that send messages, change records, delete data, or spend money.

Is Strawberry available on Linux, iPhone, or Android? The official FAQ lists macOS and Windows only. We found no mobile app on the pages we checked.

Sources

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