Opera Mini’s lightweight mobile web browser, which has become a digital lifeline in Africa, especially for users of low-spec smartphones, is stepping up its AI game with a significant update, according to TechCabal. Aria, the company’s browser AI, is being integrated into Opera Mini to bring advanced AI capabilities to over 100 million users around the world, including many in data-conscious countries like Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Opera’s latest move is its most ambitious yet in the AI-enabled space for mobile browsers. Opera is the sixth largest browser in the world with a 2.2% share of the market. It has 380 million monthly users (MAUs) and ranks behind Chrome, Safari Edge, Firefox and Samsung Internet. StatCounter reports that Africa remains a stronghold for Opera Mini. Africa is still a stronghold for Opera Mini. Kenya has 13 million users or 12% of its 100 million global users. Aria is a new AI-based experience from Opera Mini that does not require high bandwidth or large storage space. Aria offers real-time information retrieval and article summaries, text and code creation, image creation and intelligent assistance for research and learning, all within a lightweight chat interface. These features are important for Opera Mini users because they do not increase the size of the app or its data usage.
“AI has become a part of our daily internet experience,” said Jorgen Ahrensen, EVP Mobile for Opera. Aria’s addition to Opera Mini was a logical next step for the most popular browser. We’re excited about exploring how AI can enhance the feature set that our users rely upon every day.
Aria’s powered by Opera’s Composer AI Engine, which combines OpenAI and Google models to generate fast and context-relevant responses. It also supports image generation using Google’s Imagen3 model. Aria is now available on all Opera browsers, desktop and mobile.
Aria is designed to seamlessly integrate into Opera Mini. Users can access the Aria integration from the main menu, or directly from the Start page. Once activated, users can chat with Aria, ask questions, create content, search the internet, and perform AI assisted tasks without leaving the browser. Opera Mini’s mission is to make the internet faster, more accessible and cheaper for users of emerging markets. This frictionless experience fits in with this mission. Opera Mini offers a data-conscious option in regions where mobile data is prohibitively expensive. Data compression technology has helped to level the playing fields in markets where internet affordability can be a barrier. In Nigeria, 59% of users surveyed by Opera in March 2025 reported that mobile data was too expensive, and more than 50% said they ran out of data at the end of the monthly period. Opera Mini combats this by compressing data and offering promotional bundles via local telecom partnerships. Some users receive up to 1.5GB free data each month. TechCabal reported that the company has saved Nigerians $27 million worth of data by using its data compression technology.
While Google and Microsoft dominate AI narratives with tools such as Gemini and Copilot and Opera’s Aria, AI could be more accessible to low end smartphone users in areas of the world that have limited access. Opera Mini already has features that cater to local interest, such as live football results and MiniPay, the built-in digital wallet. Opera wants Aria to be the AI that everyone uses. Opera Mini’s Aria is a powerful AI tool that users can use to create school projects, find information, or generate digital content. Aria does this without consuming a lot of data.
