Dia browser unveils $20 and $100 monthly plans, locking AI features behind paywalls

One of the main reasons people use Dia is the built-in AI features. Soon, they’ll no longer be available for free on macOS. Even the basic “Ask Dia” feature will no longer be included in the free tier.

If you’ve downloaded this browser for Ask Dia, Morning Brief, context-based chatting with agents, connections with apps, or the Reports feature, all of this is being locked behind a paywall of $20 or $100 a month, depending on what you want.

Dia didn’t formally announce these (rather startling) changes publicly yet. Instead, they quietly updated the “Plans” page with this new information.

1. Better browser: Includes Profiles, tab groups, built-in ad blocker, and cross-device sync. And… that’s it. Not a single AI feature is present in this free tier, and all of the mentioned features are already available on other browsers (many of them even do it better than Dia).
2. Better answers: It costs $20 a month, and it gives you access to only basic Dia AI features, such as connectors, tab context, and Ask on page. This tier still does not include Reports or Morning Brief.
3. Better days: It costs a whopping $100 a month, and this gives you the ‘advanced’ Dia AI features such as Morning Brief and Reports. It also has higher usage limits, which is a given for the price.

It’s worth noting that Dia has only announced these changes for macOS at the moment. The updated plans began rolling out for new macOS users yesterday, on August 17. Existing users can continue using the features without any cost, for now.

From the FAQ, the company has answered a few questions. I’ve mentioned the important responses below:

• Paid plans began rolling out to new Mac users on August 17.
• If you’re an existing Dia user, you can continue using all of the features for free at the moment. Before the paid plans begin rolling out for older users, an email notification will be sent at least 30 days in advance.
• If you’re on Windows, these changes do not apply to you yet. It’s still in beta (progress is being publicly displayed on a series called Windows Wednesdays), with a scheduled public release later this fall. Once it’s out of beta, I’m assuming you’ll get a few weeks or months of free access until everything is locked behind a paywall on Windows as well.

To be clear, even connecting to apps like Gmail or Slack will require a paid subscription in the future.

There were already signs of Dia replacing the existing subscriptions with something else. A few months ago, the company phased out its older “Pro” subscription. Make no mistake — the older subscription was just one plan for increased limits. The new subscription requires you to pay $100 just for access to standout Dia features that separate it from the rest of the AI browsers, like Reports and Morning Brief.

The $100 price tag is presumably for some features that’ll come later in the year, since the existing list of benefits doesn’t make any sense to me. For instance, The Browser Company recently confirmed that an “Agentic” Dia browser is coming later this fall.

Either way, nobody’s happy about this. Features similar to Ask Dia are already available for free on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, making the value of paying $20/$100 rather questionable. As a result, most reactions online center around leaving the browser for some alternatives.

Speaking of alternatives, ever since OpenAI’s Atlas kicked the bucket, we even mentioned Dia as a potential alternative. Now, it appears like people have to look elsewhere. The browser “Aside” remains a viable option if you’re looking for something AI-focused.

Finally, PiunikaWeb’s Dwayne Cubbins also expressed to me that this new pricing model has him considering switching away from Dia for good. If you’ve been following our coverage, you’d know he has been using Dia off and on for several months.

And personally, I briefly considered moving to Dia from Arc ever since the introduction of seamless profile switching. That won’t be happening anymore either.

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