(Credit: Zooey Liao/PCMah/Brave)
Brave Origin is a minimalist version of the company’s privacy-focused browser, priced at $60 and launching in June. It’s an unusual product: a so-called upgrade that adds no new features. But Brian Bondy, co-founder and chief technology officer of Brave, tells me that the company thinks many people will pay for a pared-back web browser, even if you can already streamline Brave (and other competing browsers) in a few clicks for free.
“Brave Origin was developed in response to users saying they wanted a minimalist version of our browser, and that they would be willing to pay for it in order to support our development costs,” Bondy explained. It’s a bet on a future in which your web browser doesn’t have to make money off you because you already paid for it.
That's a somewhat compelling idea on the surface, but it has some deeper problems, considering what you can already do without paying anything.
Paying for Less: Brave's Counterintuitive Pitch
Brave uses the same underlying Chromium code as Google Chrome and many other modern browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. Unlike Chrome, however, it includes an ad blocker called Brave Shields. It also has other features that make the company money. “Brave generates revenue from a line of products, including privacy-preserving ads in the browser and in our search engine, our Search API, our VPN, our browser-integrated AI assistant Leo, Brave Talk, Brave Wallet, and crypto partnerships,” according to Bondy. He also said that Brave's cryptocurrency wallet isn’t a main focus: “Brave is above all a privacy-preserving browser and search engine.”
Brave Origin removes nearly all of these features, while still using Brave Search as its default search engine. Its $60 fee helps offset the lost revenue from those other services. The company is targeting early adopters with Brave Origin for now, but is, according to Bondy, “seeing opportunities and interest from many users, including the enterprise sector.”
I don't doubt that some people will pay for Brave Origin, but the early adopter market doesn't seem robust. Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox already offer ways for enterprises to distribute customized and managed versions of their browsers, too.
A $60 License With Strings Attached
Brave Origin is free for Linux users, but it costs $60 on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. Your purchase includes 10 browser activations usable across platforms. That activation system has sparked controversy on Reddit, with users wondering whether they have to pay $60 again after they run out. For example, if you reset your PC or phone and need to reinstall Brave Origin, you'll need to use an additional activation.
Bondy explains that “The payment system is based on Privacy Pass so that a user’s browser is never linked to their purchase information,” which is why Brave cannot reclaim used activations. However, he says Brave will have a tool that lets customers get additional browser activations with a monthly rate limit, which will be ready in time for the June launch. For now, purchasers can contact Brave’s customer support to get more activations.
Although Brave Origin is technically a separate version of Brave, it will also be available as an upgrade in all Brave browsers. Bondy explained, “Origin users who opt to upgrade will see a new Settings panel. The extra features will appear in this Settings panel; they are toggled off by default but can be turned on.” Bondy also said Brave now has over 110 million users, which is a big target market. For reference, Cloudflare’s browser report shows Brave with 1.27% global market share at the end of 2025.
This is the first time I’ve come across a paid app upgrade that focuses exclusively on removing features you can already turn off. It's a deeply strange proposition that I don't really understand. Essentially, upgrading from the regular version of Brave leaves you with a browser that lacks features you didn't have to use in the first place.
Minimalism Is Trendy—But Not New
Of course, as a privacy-focused browser with both an adblocker and advertising, Brave has always been a little strange. Its optional Brave Rewards system, which gives you Basic Attention Token (BAT) on the Ethereum blockchain, also feels increasingly out of place as the cryptocurrency hype fades.
Meanwhile, I've noticed minimalist browsers with adblockers are getting a lot of attention among software geeks and privacy enthusiasts on social media. Security is a big concern with these browsers, of course, since you’re trusting a smaller team of enthusiasts to deliver a secure experience and provide security patches in a timely fashion. The new Helium browser, for example, is the project of just two people and doesn’t have an auto-update feature on Windows yet. Brave is betting some people and companies will pay for a minimalist browser from a larger company with a good security track record and history of timely updates.
But Brave is far from your only option. If you’re looking for an independent browser without a cryptocurrency wallet, you can also try Mozilla Firefox. It has a few ads on the new tab page, but Firefox doesn’t make you tweak a lot of options. Mozilla is talking more about privacy these days and quietly added Brave’s adblock engine. And besides, every major browser lets you install ad and tracker blockers.
Brave Origin in Action: Exactly What You Paid For
I installed the nightly build of Brave Origin on Ubuntu Linux. It works exactly as expected. It’s a version of the Brave browser without the aforementioned features, featuring a minimalist black-and-white icon. I ran the Speedometer browser benchmark in the nightly versions of Brave Origin and Brave and saw the same scores for both.
I enjoyed using a minimalist browser that didn't require any immediate tweaking, since I always end up making changes to other browsers immediately upon installing them. Nonetheless, I would feel underwhelmed if I had spent $60.
You Can Get the Same Result for Free
I’m not buying Brave Origin because I can streamline Brave myself. And thankfully, it doesn’t seem like Brave plans to prevent you from doing that. “The introduction of Brave Origin does not change the focus of the Brave browser. It will remain the same browser it always has been,” Bondy told me. “We are serious about being user-first, which requires not making any unilateral or self-serving changes to value propositions perceived by Brave users.”
You can debloat the regular version of Brave in just a few minutes. Click the gear icon on the new tab page to turn off ads, hide icons like Brave Rewards by right-clicking them in the toolbar, and turn off Brave News.
You can find a few more options in Brave’s browser settings, accessible from its menu. On the Web3 page, turn off Brave’s crypto wallets by setting them to Extensions (no fallback). On the Leo page, toggle the browser’s various AI features. Brave doesn’t sync these choices across your devices, however, so you must change them on every device on which you install Brave.
An Experiment That Raises Bigger Questions
Brave Origin is a fascinating experiment: A web browser that charges a fee up front, much like Netscape Navigator from the ‘90s. But it’s also an admission that many of Brave’s core features exist primarily to make money for the company. Brave’s marketing advertises the browser’s crypto wallet as something that’s actually useful, for example, but the company is now offering to remove it for you if you pay extra. I hope Brave doesn’t use Origin as an incentive to add more obnoxious features to the standard browser.
Of course, Bondy told me that Brave users would switch to competing web browsers if the company made its standard browser worse, and that even people who pay for Brave Origin don't want to see the standard Brave browser get worse. He said, “We’re always looking at what makes sense for our users and listening to user feedback, and so far the reactions we’ve been getting about Brave Origin in the Nightly channel confirm that we delivered what users were looking for.”
Ultimately, I don’t see the point of Brave Origin, since it effectively replaces a quick and free browser configuration process with a paid browser activation process. Nonetheless, I’m curious to take a closer look at it after it launches in June.