Vivaldi’s Anti-AI Browser Bet Just Passed 4 Million Users

Vivaldi’s browser now has 4 million users, and the company’s bet that refusing to add AI features is what got them there. CEO Jon von Tetzchner, who also co-founded the Opera browser company in 1995, says Vivaldi’s anti-AI stance has drawn users whose answers to AI features range from “no” to “hell no.” Around 95% of users in the company’s own polling come down on the same side. The figure underwrites a public pledge Vivaldi made in August 2025 to keep AI out of its product. Vivaldi 8.0, the May 21, 2026 update, kept the focus on customization instead.

The pledge positions Vivaldi against a wave of agentic browser launches from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others. It also explains why the small Norwegian browser is growing at all, when Chrome sits at 70% of the global market. The bet is now paying off in user numbers. Even at 4 million, Vivaldi is a rounding error in Chrome’s world.

Vivaldi Pledges to Keep AI Out of Its Browser

Vivaldi published its anti-AI promise on August 28, 2025, under the headline “keep browsing human,” and laid out Vivaldi’s written conditions for AI integration. CEO Jon von Tetzchner wrote that Vivaldi will not use an LLM to add a chatbot, a summarization tool, or a suggestion engine to fill out forms. The pledge left the door open to AI only if it can be done without compromising privacy or the open web.

The timing put Vivaldi ahead of agentic browser launches from Google and Microsoft that have since reshaped the address bar into an assistant prompt. Tetzchner described that shift as “turning the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship.”

Users appear to back the position. When Vivaldi has asked its audience about AI features, Tetzchner says the answers come back “no” or “hell no,” with around 95% of users in agreement. The Vivaldi 8.0 update, released May 21, 2026, kept the focus on customization and shipped six preset layouts instead of an AI assistant.

Tab Management Without an LLM

Browser companies are racing to put AI in charge of your tabs. Chrome ships an AI-powered tab organizer that sorts open pages into topics without asking. Apple showed how Safari groups tabs at WWDC 2026, using Apple Intelligence to cluster tabs by subject.

Tetzchner’s take on the AI approach is short. “Is that particularly useful?” he asks. He points to Vivaldi’s tab stacks, tab tiling, and workspaces as alternatives that put the user in charge of grouping, not an LLM. “I’m not saying any integration of AI is bad,” he adds. “I’m just saying that it’s not our focus.”

Vivaldi’s position on tabs reflects a broader design philosophy, expressed in its own words as letting users “turn Vivaldi into almost anything.” The browser ships more than 7,000 themes and six preset layouts, plus tools for stacking, tiling, and following links without losing your place. None of it routes open tabs through an AI service. None of it asks for permission to read them first. Tetzchner calls that the difference: Vivaldi builds tools that give users more power, while other browsers “are adding AI to decide what you see.”

The comparison is the clearest window into what Vivaldi’s bet actually buys. It buys a browser that organizes itself around the user, not around an LLM’s guess of what the user wants.

Four Million Users and Counting

• 4 million: Vivaldi’s worldwide user count, per the company’s February 19, 2026 forum announcement
• 140%: User growth in Norway since January the prior year, per the same Vivaldi post
• 95%: Vivaldi users who say no to AI features in the browser, per CEO Jon von Tetzchner
• 200%: User growth in Denmark over the same period, per the same Vivaldi post
• 70%: Chrome’s global browser market share, per StatCounter (May 2025 to May 2026)

The growth came fast. Vivaldi’s 4-million-user announcement on February 19, 2026 credited three factors: the company is European-based, its browser is free of AI features, and it bills itself as an ethical alternative to Big Tech. The post cited a 140% increase in Norway since January the year before, and over 200% growth in Denmark over the same period. Independent tracking is hard because Vivaldi identifies as a generic Chromium browser for compatibility reasons.

Tetzchner’s interview puts the user count at “roughly 4 million users and counting.” The “huge inflow of new users” from the company’s own announcement lines up with the WWDC 2026 window, when Apple put its Safari AI features in front of mainstream attention. He ties the growth directly to the anti-AI stance and the European base, the same three factors the forum post cited.

None of this changes the scale problem. StatCounter’s global browser share data puts Chrome at 70% worldwide, with Safari at 15.71% and Edge at 5.1%. Vivaldi does not register on the leaderboard, and reports itself as a generic Chromium browser for compatibility reasons, which makes independent tracking difficult. Even a four-million-user milestone is rounding error against a 70% incumbent.

AI Looks Like Crypto to Vivaldi’s CEO

Tetzchner draws a sharp line between AI and cryptocurrency, treating them as a similar kind of hype. He calls blockchain “a technology looking for a problem to solve,” and crypto itself a scam. Vivaldi has never integrated a crypto wallet.

Other browsers have. Brave and Opera both shipped wallet features, and Brave now lets users pay $60 for the $60 Brave Origin build that compiles out Leo AI, the crypto wallet, Brave Rewards, Tor, and the built-in VPN. Tetzchner’s framing for Vivaldi is plain: do we want to put scams in? He says no. The same skepticism now covers AI: “We’re not going to force it on you. If you find it useful, fine, then use it.”

The Privacy Argument Behind the AI Refusal

Vivaldi bundles Proton VPN with unlimited free data and a single-click button in the toolbar. The integration is part of how the company sells the browser to people who want to disconnect from the big tech stack.

There’s a lot of skepticism that it has gone too far, too quickly. It’s being pushed on people. And the question is: Why the rush?

Tetzchner said this in the interview, on AI in browsers more broadly, and points to Facebook’s evolution from a service that connected you with family and friends to an algorithmic feed that decides what you should see. He calls that pattern “a history that’s happened too many times, not least with social media companies.” The implication is that AI in browsers is the next iteration of the same business model. Vivaldi’s policy is the explicit alternative.

His argument is structural, not paranoid. AI features require sending more personal data to big tech companies, in his telling, and the question is whether that data gets used for purposes beyond the feature itself. “Big tech has at times proven that they go their own way,” he says. “They don’t listen.”

Vivaldi pitches itself as one of the small acts of resistance available before regulators act. “People are angry with big tech,” Tetzchner says. “And they’re saying, OK, I can make a step. I can go and use another browser.” He frames the no-AI stance as continuous with the company’s general policy against data collection, ad tracking, and other forms of behavioral profiling. He says that stance is why Vivaldi exists, and why users are switching. The unspoken part is that Vivaldi is also the kind of company that can take a stance, because it is not funded by the people whose data collection it criticizes.

Why Tetzchner Left Windows for Linux

Tetzchner switched to Linux about a year ago, and he currently runs Kubuntu on his computer, with Ubuntu on another. “I’m kind of finding my way,” he says. Vivaldi ships on all five of the operating systems he now uses.

His complaints about Windows map onto the same privacy argument he makes for the browser. He objects to logging into the cloud to log into a PC, and to automatic uploading of data. “I do not want AI on my system,” he says. When he uses AI at all, he prefers to open Claude or another service in a browser tab, so the tool is opt-in and removable.

• The AI-powered Recall feature that takes screenshots of PC usage
• Microsoft OneDrive syncing folders without asking
• Windows 10 ending security updates for still-usable PCs
• Cloud login required to log into a Windows PC

Tetzchner says he is “kind of embarrassed with how long I was on Windows.” The list reads like a roll call of Microsoft moves that have drawn fire from privacy advocates. His switch was a personal vote with his feet, in line with the same philosophy he applies to the browser.

No Investors, Every Employee a Shareholder

We’re trying to make the right choices and not be driven by money. If we were driven by money, we would have done blockchain and crypto, and we would have done AI integration.

The setup is what makes the bet possible, and Tetzchner laid it out in the interview on Vivaldi’s design philosophy. He co-founded the company in 2013 after leaving Opera in 2011 over a disagreement with investors about direction, and he personally funded the new venture. He says every employee is a shareholder. “With Vivaldi, we’re doing things differently,” he adds. “There are no investors. I funded the company.”

The company says it is more excited about the future than ever, and Tetzchner remains an optimist by his own description. He frames the work as “fighting for the web” against the data collection practices he sees taking hold. “Before governments make those decisions, which they should have done a long time ago, we can all vote with our feet,” he says. Vivaldi is one vote, and it now has a four-million-user proof point to show for the wager.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Vivaldi have any AI features?

No. Vivaldi’s August 28, 2025 statement said it would not embed chatbots, summarization, or suggestion engines until “more rigorous ways to do those things are available.” The browser ships tools for organizing tabs, stacks, and workspaces, all without an LLM.

Who is Jon von Tetzchner?

Tetzchner co-founded Opera in 1995 and Vivaldi in 2013 with Tatsuki Tomita. He left Opera in 2011 after a disagreement with investors over the company’s direction, and he personally funded Vivaldi with no outside capital. He is currently the CEO.

Why is Vivaldi against AI in browsers?

Tetzchner argues AI in browsers involves sending more personal data to big tech companies, and he sees the rush to embed AI as the next step in the data-collection pattern that turned Facebook from a friend-finder into an algorithmic feed. Around 95% of Vivaldi’s users agree, per the company’s own polling. The Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox paths are all in the opposite direction.

What is Brave Origin?

Brave Origin is a paid, $60 version of the Brave browser launched in 2026 that compiles out Leo AI, the crypto wallet, Brave Rewards, Tor integration, and the built-in VPN. Vivaldi’s CEO uses it as an example of feature creep that he has refused to import into Vivaldi.