Brave Releases Paid ‘Origin’ Version of its Browser Without Revenue Generating Features

The privacy-focused Brave browser is moving to a freemium business model today. A paid Brave Origin version is now available as a standalone app or an in-app upgrade for the existing version of Brave, and it’s a single $59.99 purchase.

Brave Origin offers the same level of privacy and performance as the original version of Brave. However, it gets rid of non-essential tools such as Brave’s Leo AI and revenue-generating features such as the built-in VPN and crypto wallet.

“By default, Brave blocks the data theft that feeds the Surveillance Economy, and combats the algorithmic bias that can harm free access to information. At the same time, we’re conscious of the economics of the Web. We have strived to put users first while enabling them to support their favorite publishers and creators, all the while building Brave into a sustainable business. We built Brave Origin in response to requests from users who wanted to support Brave’s industry-leading work on Web privacy and open-source adblocking, without having to manage or remove features they weren’t interested in using,” the Brave team explained today.

According to the company, Brave Origin was developed in response to users who have no need for extra AI and Web3 features, but still want to support Brave’s development. However, Brave Origin will be free on Linux, as “some Linux distros already offer a version of Brave that’s similar to Origin, where various features are turned off,” the company explained in an FAQ.

Brave users who pay for an Origin license can upgrade their existing version of the browser to Brave Origin and get the ability to disable the following features:

• Leo AI
• News
• Playlist (currently iOS only)
• Rewards (which also disables browser-based Brave Ads)
• Speedreader
• Stats like the daily usage ping, crash logs, and privacy-preserving product analytics (P3A)
• Talk
• Tor
• VPN
• Wallet (which also disables Web3 domains)
• Wayback Machine
• Web Discovery Project
• Email aliases (currently in Nightly release for desktop)

Brave Origin also doesn’t include stats such as the daily usage ping, crash logs, and privacy-preserving product analytics (P3A). The standalone version of the browser also has a smaller executable, as all extra features listed above are absent from the build.

The Brave team made it clear that the non-Origin version of Brave will remain free to use and fully supported. “Users who use the free Brave browser can also hide or disable most Brave features without getting Origin. However, the features are not compiled out of the build just by hiding them, and thus executables are not smaller, unlike the standalone Origin product,” the company explained.

Brave users who want to support the development of the browser without paying for an Origin license can also do so by subscribing to Brave’s other premium products, including Search Premium ($29.99/year), which removes ads in Brave Search and provides a cleaner view on all results pages. There’s also the Brave VPN ($99.99/year) and the Leo AI Premium assistant ($149.99/year). The latter provides access to industry-leading LLMs with higher rate limits right within the browser.

Brave Origin is launching today on Windows and macOS via a one-time purchase of $59.99, and it’s also free on Linux. For existing Brave users, Origin is available as an in-app upgrade, which will become available on iOS and Android when Brave version 1.91 is released.

The standalone Brave Origin installer is also available today on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and access to it is also included with the $59.99 license. “There is technically no limit to the number of times you can activate Origin across your devices and platforms, but there is a monthly rate limit,” the Brave team explained.