Firefox expands access to popular AI chatbots right from the sidebar

Firefox users can now tap into their favorite AI directly from the browser. Currently rolling out to all Firefox users with version 135 is a sidebar feature that grants access to several different AI chatbots. The list includes Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, HuggingChat by Hugging Face, and Le Chat Mistral.

The AI access has been available in Firefox since last September with version 130 but only on an experimental basis. Now it’s an official feature built into the browser for anyone to use.

To try this out, make sure you’re running the latest version of Firefox. To do that, click the three-lined hamburger icon at the top right, click Help, and then select About Firefox. The browser will automatically download and install the new version and then prompt you to restart it.

After launching Firefox again, click the Sidebar icon on the top toolbar. At the sidebar on the left, click the drop-down arrow to see a menu of choices, such as Bookmarks, History, Synced Tabs, and AI Chatbot. Select the one for AI Chatbot. You can also access the AI list more quickly without even opening the sidebar by pressing Ctrl+Alt+X.

The first time you do this, you’ll be prompted to sign in to each AI you want to use. You’ll need regular accounts with the services you wish to access. But this will work whether you use them for free or via paid subscriptions. After you’re signed in, you’re able to use all the core features of the AI.

For example, signing in with my ChatGPT Plus account lets me choose among the different models, submit a prompt, generate an image, and view my chat history. Logging in with my Google Gemini Advanced account provides all the available models from Flash 1.5 to Flash 2.0, allows me to speak my request, and lets me upload an image or other file for analysis. My current free plan with Anthropic’s Claude also offers all the standard features.