Rill Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

Rill is a free Mac browser that hands requests from any page to the Claude Code or Codex you already pay for. It is careful, clearly documented and early, with real trade-offs for privacy-minded users. Best for: Mac developers who live in agent CLIs. Price: from $0/mo, free plan yes. Rating: 7/10.

What is Rill?

We came across Rill on Product Hunt, where it launched on 6 October 2026 as a browser built for people who already run Claude Code or Codex on their Mac. The idea is simple. You read something on the web, press Command-E, describe what you want, and an agent picks the right local project and gets on with it while you keep browsing.

Rill browser is a native macOS app built on Apple’s WebKit, not Chromium. It needs macOS 14 or newer and a Mac with Apple silicon. The terms name the maker as Manifold AI Inc. and set Delaware law for disputes. Version 0.1.5 is the current download, and the release list on the site shows 0.1.0 shipped on 27 September 2026, so the product is about ten days old.

What Are Rill’s Key Features?

Send a request from any page

Command-E opens a prompt over whatever you are reading. Rill attaches the page address, title and either your selection or the first 2,000 characters of text, then decides which of your projects should get the job. It finds those projects by reading your existing Claude Code and Codex session history, so there is no setup screen. When it is unsure, a second read-only pass searches its project index before asking you to pick.

Agents that browse on their own

Requests aimed at a project run your own CLI in the background, with tool steps and file diffs shown as they happen. New jobs are read-only until you allow edits, and in a git repository each edit can be undone. When a project agent needs the web, it gets background pages with a separate temporary cookie store, so it never sees your logins. A small helper program bundled in the app exposes only those isolated pages to the agent.

Web errands with your sign-ins

Requests that are not about code, such as finding a flight, go to an agent that works in ordinary browser windows under your own sign-ins. The site says it will go as far as the payment step and stop. The agent cannot type into password, card or one-time-code fields, and pages showing those fields are not read. This is the most useful and the most risky feature in the app.

History as a journal

Rill groups your open pages on the start page, writes each day of browsing into short episodes, and lets you find a half-remembered page by describing it. After a few weeks it draws every project your agents have touched on one map with AI-named areas. There is also a beta voice mode: hold Fn and speak, and an on-device speech model types what you said.

What Is It Like to Use Rill?

We did not install or run Rill. What follows comes from the site, its privacy page and an inspection of the 0.1.5 disk image. Setup is three steps on the vendor’s account: drag the app to Applications, sign in to Claude Code or Codex, and press Command-E on a page. Agent features need Claude Code 2.1.261 or newer, or the Codex CLI 0.144.4 or newer.

The everyday browser covers the basics. Passwords live in the macOS Keychain behind Touch ID, there are private windows, built-in ad and tracker blocking from EasyList and EasyPrivacy, and an import of sign-ins and history from Chrome, Arc or Safari. You can pick Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, Kagi or Ecosia for search. Passkeys do not work yet, and the site lists no support for Chrome extensions.

Rill’s design leans calm. Agents report back in a small tray in the window corner and ask questions in the tab where they are working, rather than pulling you into a terminal. A compare feature takes up to six open pages and returns a table that quotes each page. It is a thoughtful layout for people who would otherwise juggle a browser and three terminal windows.

The download checks out. Apple’s notarization check accepts both the disk image and the app as notarized, the app has Apple’s hardened code-signing protections turned on, and it ships as an arm64-only build with a standard open-source updater. It is signed by an individual developer account rather than one in the company’s name, and it runs without the macOS app sandbox, which is normal for a browser that has to launch command-line tools.

Where Does Rill Fall Short?

Web errands run as you, and the privacy page states openly that the stop-before-paying rule is an instruction to the agent, not a lock, and that prompt injection is reduced, not solved. A web page that steers the agent is working inside your signed-in session, so anyone cautious should keep this feature for low-stakes jobs.

A lot leaves your Mac by default. Tab grouping is on unless you turn it off and runs after two quiet minutes with three or more pages open, sending titles and addresses to your provider. Day episodes send up to 280 characters of text per visit, and asking about a page sends up to 18,000. Routing sends a catalog of your projects, including excerpts from each project’s intro docs, git remotes and recent commit subjects.

All of it goes to Anthropic or OpenAI under your own account, not to Rill’s servers, and the privacy page lists each item clearly. Nothing is sent from a private window.

Local storage is unencrypted text. History keeps up to 8,000 characters of each page you visit in dated files that any program running as you can read, including the agents Rill starts. The vendor itself recommends FileVault. The build also contains an iCloud Keychain sync switch for passwords that the privacy page, which says passwords stay on this Mac, does not mention.

It is very early. The update feed on the site listed version 0.1.3 on launch day while the download link served 0.1.5, and the separate release list stopped at 0.1.3 too. Intel Macs, Windows and Linux are out, voice is in beta, and there is no public source repository to inspect beyond the build itself.

How Much Does Rill Cost?

Rill costs $0. There is no paid plan, no trial clock and no account with Rill itself. The terms grant a free personal licence and limit the company’s liability at the greater of what you paid or US$50. Nothing on the site says what Rill will cost after the beta, so treat future pricing as unknown.

The real cost is your agent plan, which is not Rill’s price. Anthropic’s pricing page puts Claude Code in the Pro plan at $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month on a $200 annual payment, with Max from $100 a month. OpenAI’s Codex pricing page includes Codex in every OpenAI subscription tier, lists the CLI from Plus at $20 a month, and offers Pro at $100, $200 or $500 a month. Free and Go tiers exist, but OpenAI lists them for its desktop app only.

Against other AI-first browsers, that model is cheap if you already pay for one of those plans. Dia is free as a basic browser, then $20 a month for Better Answers and $100 for Better Days. A credit-metered rival, covered in the alternatives below, gives 500 credits a month free, then $20, $100 or $250 a month, with extra credits at $10 per 1,000. Rill adds no second subscription on top of the one you have.

Who is Rill Best For?

Use Rill if you already run Claude Code or Codex every day on an Apple silicon Mac, keep several projects on disk, and keep losing ideas between the browser and the terminal. The routing from page to project is the feature nobody else offers in this form, and the cost is nothing extra.

Skip Rill if you rely on Chrome extensions or passkeys, use an Intel Mac, or are uneasy about an agent browsing with your signed-in sessions. Skip it too if your work involves client data you cannot send to Anthropic or OpenAI, because most AI features in Rill pass page text to whichever provider you pick.

Best Rill Alternatives

Dia

Dia, from the team behind Arc, is the polished AI browser for general office work, with chat across your open pages and work apps, a morning summary and meeting prep. It is free as a browser, $20 a month for Better Answers and $100 a month for Better Days, with a 14-day trial of the top plan. Pick it if you want an assistant in the browser rather than your own coding agents.

Strawberry Browser

It focuses on web errands for sales and operations work, metered in credits. The free plan has 500 credits a month, and paid plans run $20, $100 and $250 a month, with yearly billing at two months free. It suits people who want web jobs done without owning a Claude Code or Codex plan.

Arc Browser

Arc Browser is the calm, organised browser many Rill users will import from. Its site shows a download and no price, and it now says Arc receives Chromium updates only and points new users to Dia. It has no link to local coding agents, so it suits people who want the organised layout without the agents.

Final Verdict: Is Rill Worth It?

For its target user, yes. Rill costs nothing, runs on a plan you already pay for, and solves a real annoyance: the gap between reading something useful and getting an agent to work on it in the right project. The privacy page is one of the most specific we have read, listing every feature, what it sends and when, and the build matches the site on notarization and system requirements.

It earns a 7 rather than more because it is ten days old, Apple silicon only, missing extensions and passkeys, and its web errands carry real risk that the vendor admits openly. Install it as a second browser for agent work, leave tab grouping off if you want less sent out, and keep your main browser for banking and anything you would not hand an agent.