The topic Opera now has an MCP server that lets Claude and ChatGPT control your browser is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
The AI world is certainly interesting, to say the very least. We began with simple chatbots where you’d drop in a question and get a text response back. AI labs then began competing on who could make their model the smartest, and somewhere between all the competition, browser companies decided they wanted in too. While it began with browsers having a couple of AI features baked in here and there, it eventually led to companies developing full-fledged browsers that were built with AI at their core.
Perplexity launched Comet, OpenAI launched Atlas and even Norton (yes, the antivirus company) launched an AI browser called Neo. The first major player to go all-in on the concept was Opera though, with its agentic browser Neon. The reason why I went a bit down the history lane was because it all ties back to what I said initially: the AI world is certainly interesting. Now, rather than browser companies weaving AI into the browser, we’re seeing the reverse: AI reaching into the browser. Similar to how Opera was the first to build a browser around AI, they’re leading this reversal too by launching an MCP Connector for its Neon browser.
As announced via a blog post on Opera Newsroom, the Oslo-based company just announced MCP Connector for Opera Neon that enables third-party AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, n8n, Lovable and even OpenClaw to connect directly to its Neon browser. Though it’s currently only available for its agentic browser Neon, the company mentioned that it will also be bringing a simplified version of the MCP Connector to its other browsers down the line.
Now, before we go any deeper with what the MCP Connector really means for you, you need to understand what an MCP server really is if you don’t already. MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is essentially a standard that lets AI tools talk to other apps and servers. It’s an open standard that was first introduced in late 2024 by the company behind Claude, Anthropic. It essentially gives tools a way out of building custom integrations for every single app or service they want to connect to. With an MCP server though, any AI tool that supports the protocol can connect and interact with the service right away.
That’s exactly what Opera has done with Neon. The MCP Connector allows AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to directly connect to your live Neon browser session and see what you’re working with, including your open tabs, the content on your screen, and even your logged-in sessions. These AI tools can then take actions directly within the Neon browser like navigating pages, extracting information, filling out forms, capturing screenshots, opening new tabs, and running searches.
MCP is a fascinating protocol, and its widespread adoption is even more interesting.
Opera Neon debuted with the concept of agentic browsing, where the browser’s AI could carry out tasks on your behalf. With MCP Connector, that’s no longer limited to Opera’s own AI, and any compatible third-party AI client that supports MCP can tap into those same capabilities.