Firefox expands the Smart Window beta feature with Exa search, tab groups, and a choice of AI models
Mozilla has expanded the Smart Window beta feature in the Firefox browser with an integration with Exa (current web information with citations), automatic tab groups, and natural-language history search. Users choose between Gemini, OpenAI, Qwen, or local models.
Mozilla has expanded the Smart Window beta feature (an AI browsing mode in Firefox) with a new integration with Exa that allows AI chat responses to draw on current web information and display links to sources. Smart Window now also automatically suggests tab groups and displays visual previews of previously visited pages when searching browsing history in natural language.
According to the description, a journalist from The Verge saw a live demonstration in which Smart Window used selected links from browsing history to find, for example, “running shoes I looked at last week” and displayed images from previously visited pages. Suggested tab groups can find and close duplicate tabs. According to Mozilla, this helps users verify answers or get their bearings again, even when they cannot remember the exact page; the company said beta testers reported that it helped them maintain their train of thought. In the future, Mozilla plans to add an overview of recent browsing “journeys” similar to Chrome and AI filling of online forms.
Users can choose which AI model Smart Window will use – the options include Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite from Google, oss-gpt-120b from OpenAI, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 from Alibaba, or their own local models. According to Firefox head Ajit Varma, this is an effort to offer “digital sovereignty” – the ability to choose local models or models from companies in their own region. Firefox AI senior product manager Steve Truong said that all offered models operate under zero-data-retention agreements, meaning that providers process the user prompt only in memory and do not store it for model training, advertising, or human review; Mozilla says it does not itself store user chats on its servers without consent.
Smart Window remains an opt-in beta feature with no fixed date for leaving beta. It was first introduced last year under the name “AI Window”, and Mozilla has since added an AI Controls section to Firefox settings, where individual AI features can be turned off or on according to user preferences.
Why it matters
The feature shows how a browser can use AI to work with what the user has already seen (history, open tabs), instead of merely generating new answers — this may save time when looking for previously visited pages. The option to choose a local model or models with a stated zero-data-retention approach is relevant to users and organizations concerned about where their data and queries go. For now, it is an opt-in beta with no fixed date for a full release, so its impact remains limited to willing testers.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Firefox users can use Smart Window in beta mode to search their browsing history in natural language, receive suggestions for tab groups with automatic removal of duplicates, and choose which AI model (including a local one) processes their queries.
For a business
The choice between cloud models and local AI models, together with the claimed zero-data-retention approach, may be relevant to companies addressing compliance with data protection requirements when deploying the browser for employees.
Risks and complianceCheck the original
Event sources
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