Firefox expands Smart Window’s capabilities with real-time web search, automatic tab grouping, and visual history previews. These beta features, available in the US and Canada, leverage a partnership with Exa for sourced responses.
Tools to retrace your browsing thread
Smart Window, Firefox’s dedicated AI window, now offers features designed to "help users complete what they started online." These include automatic detection of duplicate tabs, allowing them to be closed with a single click. The system also suggests groups for tabs related to the same topic, useful for in-depth research or event planning.
Another new feature allows users to formulate natural language queries such as "the running shoes I viewed last week." Smart Window then displays visual previews of pages from the history, making it easier to search without opening each tab.
Web search and transparent sources via Exa
The partnership with Exa, a company specializing in AI-powered web search and retrieval, enables Smart Window to integrate up-to-date information into its responses. Unlike a traditional search, results appear directly in the conversation, accompanied by their sources.
Mozilla clarifies that Smart Window does not just generate new responses: it also sorts information already viewed by the user, adding citations for data sourced from Exa.
A user-centric and privacy-focused approach
Smart Window remains an optional feature, available in beta in English for US and Canadian users. Mozilla emphasizes its "agnostic" approach: users can choose their AI model from multiple options, including Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, OpenAI oss-gpt-120b, Alibaba Qwen3-235B, or local models.
"We aim to ensure digital sovereignty, so users can opt for local AI or companies based in their region, with different values than those of tech giants." — Ajit Varma, Firefox lead at MozillaTranslated from French
Steve Truong, senior product lead for AI at Firefox, notes that all offered models operate under a "zero data retention" contract. Third parties do not retain queries for model training, advertising, or human review. Mozilla also does not record conversations without explicit consent.
In the future, Smart Window will integrate recent browsing path reconstruction and intelligent form autocompletion. Users will retain control over tabs shared with the tool.
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Next steps
Mozilla has not announced a specific release date for the stable version of Smart Window. The feature, initially introduced as "AI Window" in 2025, continues to evolve based on beta user feedback.
With these additions, Firefox is betting on a subtle AI integration focused on browsing organization and memory, rather than content generation. The emphasis on source transparency and privacy could appeal to those seeking an alternative to more intrusive browsers.
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