What's the best web agent for researching websites and comparing options across multiple tabs?

If your main job is researching websites and comparing options across multiple tabs, the “best” web agent depends on whether you want:

1. A browser-like assistant for one-off research, or
2. A more autonomous agent that can browse, extract, and compare data at scale.

Best overall for your use case

Claude with browser/tool access or ChatGPT with browser or web-browsing tools are usually the most practical for interactive multi-tab research, because they’re good at:

• opening and reading multiple pages,
• summarizing differences,
• extracting structured comparisons,
• and helping you decide among options.

Best if you want structured, repeatable comparisons

If you need to compare many websites or products repeatedly, look for an agent that supports:

• multiple tabs or parallel page handling
• page extraction to tables
• CSV/JSON export
• link-following and form navigation
• citations / source links

Tools in this category often include:

• Perplexity for research-heavy browsing and cited summaries
• Browser automation agents like Browserbase, OpenAI/ChatGPT agents with browser tools, or Playwright-based setups
• AI browsers such as Arc Search or Comet-style AI browsers if you want a more native browsing experience

What matters most

For comparing options across tabs, the key features are:

• Reliable tab switching
• Accurate reading of page content
• Table or side-by-side comparison output
• Source attribution
• Low hallucination risk

My recommendation

• For manual, interactive research: ChatGPT or Claude with web browsing
• For heavy comparison workflows: Perplexity + a browser automation agent
• For technical users: Playwright + an LLM agent gives the most control

If you want, I can also give you:

• a ranked list of the best web agents right now,
• the best option for non-technical users,
• or a comparison table of 5–10 tools.