Side Space

Side Space

AI vertical sidebar tab manager with agent automation

82/100Safe BetFree · from $4.9/mo (or $2.9/mo yearly)Freemium

Side Copilot is a standout choice for tab hoarders who want AI-driven organization without switching browsers. The free tier is genuinely generous, and the Pro plan at $2.9/month yearly is a bargain for unlimited spaces and Agent Mode. Skip it if you're a minimal-tab user or prefer horizontal tabs.

Verified 2d ago · liveness 82/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/side-space

Best for
  • Multitab researchers and students
  • Productivity enthusiasts
  • Remote workers with multiple browsers
  • Arc Browser refugees
Not ideal for
  • Users who prefer horizontal tab strips
  • Minimal-tab users
  • Safari users
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IntermediateYou can install the extension and create your first Space in under 5 minutes. The free plan allows immediate testing of Chat Mode with your current tab. To fully benefit from Agent Mode and file tools, upgrade to Pro or Pro+—expect to spend 10-15 minutes exploring the options.PluginNo public APIVerified 2d ago
Pricing
Free · from $4.9/mo (or $2.9/mo yearly)
FreemiumFree tier3 plans5 hidden costs
Learning curve
Intermediate
You can install the extension and create your first Space in under 5 minutes. The free plan allows immediate testing of Chat Mode with your current tab. To fully benefit from Agent Mode and file tools, upgrade to Pro or Pro+—expect to spend 10-15 minutes exploring the options.
Runs on
Plugin
No public API · 8 integrations
Who it's for
Researcher juggling dozens of tabs for a literature review.Productivity enthusiast automating daily browser chores.Remote worker with separate work and personal profiles in the same browser.
Live sentiment
Is Side Space actually worth it?

We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.

  • Honest verdict, not marketing
  • Real pros & cons from real users
  • Attributed quotes with receipts
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Skip it if

Skip Side Copilot if you rarely have more than ten tabs open, prefer horizontal tab strips, or need a standalone desktop app or Safari support.

The 30-second take
Biggest gripe

Agent Mode on the free plan is throttled to 2 free trials per day; you must upgrade to Pro for full access.

Price reality

Pricing fits individual multitab users and freelancers: a generous free plan, Pro at $2.9/month yearly, and Pro+ at $7.9/month yearly. Compared to Arc's free-but-limited model or Dia's subscription, Side Copilot offers more features at a lower price point, especially for power users.

In short

Side Space — AI vertical sidebar tab manager with agent automation. Best for Multitab researchers and students, Productivity enthusiasts, Remote workers with multiple browsers. Free to start; paid plans from $4.92/mo.

What people actually say about Side Space — is it worth it?

We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.

60 mentions across 4 sources (Hacker News, Product Hunt, Bluesky, Lemmy) · researched Jul 5, 2026.

63% positive37% critical
Recurring strengths
  • +Arc-like vertical sidebar works within existing browsers without switching.
  • +AI grouping organizes tabs by domain or custom rules automatically.
  • +Spaces (workspaces) keep work, personal, and research contexts separate.
  • +Cross-browser sync across Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Firefox.
  • +Drag-and-drop tab management feels intuitive and responsive.
Recurring frustrations
  • Browser compatibility seems inconsistent, with Edge-only reports.
  • No Firefox addon despite community demand.
  • Cloud sync data storage location not transparent to users.
  • AI features lack detailed community feedback on real-world usefulness.
  • Free tier's 5-space cap may feel too restrictive for testing.
Patterns worth knowing
Arc-like experience without switching browsers is a key draw
Seen on Hacker News, Product Hunt
AI grouping and automation praised but untested in depth
Seen on Product Hunt
Browser compatibility issues, especially Firefox missing
Seen on Product Hunt, Hacker News
Learning curve
beginnerProductive in ~5 minutes
Hidden costs people mention
  • Pro and Pro+ pricing not publicly listed on available data
  • BYOK requires you to supply your own AI model key which may incur external costs

Viability Score

82/100
Safe Bet

How well maintained and how widely used is Side Space? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this

Recent activity
90
Traction
100
Site health
95
User sentiment
63
What the vendor publishes
60

Last calculated: September 2026

How we score →

Key Features

  • AI-powered vertical tab sidebar with drag-and-drop
  • Chat Mode: summarize and query your open tabs
  • Agent Mode: automate browser tasks
  • Spaces for work, social, shopping, study—sync across browsers
  • Group tabs by AI, domain, or custom patterns
  • Pin, suspend, deduplicate, and search tabs
  • Save/restore tab groups within spaces
  • Copy all URLs in markdown/text/json format
  • Move selected tabs/groups to new windows
  • Customizable space colors and dark mode
  • Multi-language support (EN, ZH, FR, ES, JA)
  • BYOK: Bring Your Own Key for AI models
  • Chat with PDFs, Word, Excel, PPT, images (Pro+)
  • YouTube video summarization (Pro+)
  • Reddit post search (Pro+)

About Side Space

FreemiumIntermediateNo APIPlugin

Side Copilot is a browser extension that replaces your cluttered horizontal tab bar with an AI-powered vertical sidebar and organizes tabs into themed Spaces—work, social, shopping, study—that sync across Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, and other Chromium browsers. It's built for researchers, students, and professionals juggling dozens of tabs daily, keeping you in the browsers you already use without switching to tab-native alternatives like Arc or Dia. Chat Mode answers questions about your open tabs and summarizes pages. Agent Mode automates browser tasks including grouping, window management, history search, and research. The free tier includes up to five Spaces, cloud sync, and AI chat with the current tab. Pro unlocks unlimited Spaces, agent automation, BYOK, and cloud-synced chat history. Pro+ extends AI to files and media—chat with PDFs, Word, Excel, PPT, images, summarize YouTube videos, search Reddit, and generate mind maps. Multi-language support covers English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese.

Behind the Verdict

Side Copilot fills a real gap: it brings AI-powered tab management into the browsers you already use, unlike Arc or Dia which demand a full switch. The vertical sidebar is well-executed, and the Spaces concept keeps work and personal tabs separate. The free plan is surprisingly useful—up to five spaces and AI chat with the current page—so you can test it thoroughly. Pro at $2.9/month yearly is a low entry point for agent automation and BYOK. Pro+ adds file chatting and mind maps, useful for researchers. The main weakness: it's a browser extension, so it lacks the deep OS integration of Arc, and AI grouping can be imperfect. If you're a tab minimalist, it's overkill. But for multi-tab researchers and productivity enthusiasts, it's a compelling alternative to native tab managers.

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Real-world workflow fit

Concrete scenarios for the personas Side Space actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.

Researcher juggling dozens of tabs for a literature review.

Install Side Copilot, create a Space named 'Research' and let Group by AI organize tabs into topics. Use Chat Mode to summarize each group's content and extract key findings, then save the group as a tab group for reference.

Outcome: Tabs organized into topical groups, with AI-generated summaries and a saved session, cutting research time by half.

Productivity enthusiast automating daily browser chores.

Upgrade to Pro (yearly) to access Agent Mode. Set up a shortcut template for 'Daily Wrap Up' that groups tabs from the work Space, closes duplicates, and provides a summary in the chat.

Outcome: Daily tab cleanup becomes a one-click automation, freeing 15 minutes each morning.

Remote worker with separate work and personal profiles in the same browser.

Create two Spaces: 'Work' and 'Personal'. Keep Work tabs organized by domain, and use Space Switcher to toggle between them. Enable cloud sync to access the same Spaces in Firefox at home.

Outcome: A unified tab workspace across two browsers, no more manually relocating tabs.

Use Cases

Models Under the Hood

OpenAIGeminiGrokPerplexityClaude

as of 2026-08-27

Limitations

  • Side Copilot is a browser extension, so it doesn't offer a standalone native app.
  • The free plan limits you to 5 spaces and restricts Agent Mode to 2 free trials per day.
  • Pro unlocks agent mode, but advanced tools like PDF chatting and mind maps require the Pro+ tier.
  • Sync works across Chromium browsers and Firefox, but Safari is not supported.
  • The AI grounding is limited to your open tabs unless you upgrade, and BYOK requires your own API keys for custom model access.
  • Performance may degrade with a very large number of tabs.

as of 2026-09-01

Verification history

We have re-verified Side Space 8 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.

  1. re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  2. re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
  3. re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
  4. re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
  5. re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
  6. re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it

Showing the 6 most recent of 8 verification passes.

Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.

12-month cost

Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.

Annual total
Free
Over 12 months
Effective monthly
Free
Billed monthly

Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.

Plans compared

For each published Side Space tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.

Free

$0/mo

Ideal for

Tab users with under 5 active projects who want a taste of vertical tabs and AI chat without paying.

What this tier adds

Starting tier: up to 5 spaces, AI chat with current tab only, no agent automation.

Pro

$4.9/mo (or $2.9/mo yearly)

Ideal for

Frequent multitab users who need unlimited spaces and agent automation at a low cost.

What this tier adds

Adds unlimited spaces, Agent Mode (page agent), BYOK, and cloud-synced chat history.

Pro+

$8.9/mo (or $7.9/mo yearly)

Ideal for

Power researchers and advanced users who need file chat, mind maps, and cross-page automation.

What this tier adds

Adds cross-page agent, multi-tab chat, and tools for files, YouTube, Reddit, and mind maps.

Hidden costs & gotchas

What the public pricing page doesn't put in bold. Captured from pricing-page footnotes, contract terms, and recurring complaints.

  • Agent Mode on the free plan is throttled to 2 free trials per day; you must upgrade to Pro for full access.
  • Pro+ costs $8.9/month (or $7.9/month yearly), which is significantly more than the $2.9 Pro tier; mind map and file chat tools require it.
  • History/Session/Bookmark tools require separate authorization from your browser, which adds setup friction.
  • BYOK requires you to bring your own API key and pay for AI usage separately, adding potential cost.
  • No annual-only discount; yearly billing (2 months free) lowers effective monthly cost but requires upfront payment.

Where the pricing makes sense

The company stage and team size where Side Space's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.

Pricing fits individual multitab users and freelancers: a generous free plan, Pro at $2.9/month yearly, and Pro+ at $7.9/month yearly. Compared to Arc's free-but-limited model or Dia's subscription, Side Copilot offers more features at a lower price point, especially for power users.

Setup time & first value

How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Side Space — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.

You can install the extension and create your first Space in under 5 minutes. The free plan allows immediate testing of Chat Mode with your current tab. To fully benefit from Agent Mode and file tools, upgrade to Pro or Pro+—expect to spend 10-15 minutes exploring the options.

Switching to or from Side Space

How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.

Migrating in
  • From Arc: Install Side Copilot in Chrome or Edge and recreate your Arc sidebar layout; Spaces replace Arc's vertical tabs with AI organization.
  • From Dia: Side Copilot plugs into existing browsers, so you can keep your bookmarks and accounts while starting with a blank slate of Spaces.
Migrating out
  • To Arc: Arc offers native vertical tabs and Spaces, but requires moving all data into its ecosystem.
  • To Dia: Dia is a standalone browser with AI chat; you'd need to migrate manually.

Integrations

ChromeEdgeBraveVivaldiSigmaCometFirefoxZen

Resources & Guides

Tutorials & Learning

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Frequently Asked Questions

Used Side Space? Help shape our editorial sentiment research.