The Best Web Browser in 2026

Web browsers remain one of the most important pieces of software on a device — and the differences between them still matter. In this updated comparison, we objectively test Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge to determine which offers the best balance of speed, standards compliance, graphics performance, energy efficiency and privacy.

In 2026, the browser landscape has continued to evolve.

For the third year in a row, we’ve cut through the noise to help you choose the best browser for your needs. Feel free to review our results from 2025 or 2024, then read on to see what’s changed this year and which browser comes out on top.

On this page

• Browser Highlights for 2026
• Fastest Web Browser in 2026
• Most Standards Compliant Web Browser in 2026
• Best Graphics Performance
• Most Energy Efficient Web Browser
• Most Privacy Compliant Web Browser
• Overall Best Web Browser in 2026

Browser Highlights for 2026

Our browser testing focuses on measurable, quantitative results rather than subjective opinions or feature checklists.

Below are the highlights for 2026, summarising the most meaningful changes and trends over the past year.

• Chrome now equals Safari in web browsing speed tests, though Safari still delivers the best graphics performance
• Edge and Chrome have significantly improved their energy efficiency. They now lead all other browsers in low energy use and battery consumption
• Firefox continues to lag behind in performance, trailing all other browsers, while regressing in graphics performance during 2025. Firefox has also lost bragging rights to being the most energy efficient browser
• Due to the their ‘free’ business models, lack of inbuilt privacy controls continues to be most browser’s achilles heel. Only Safari and Firefox meet the privacy protection standards expected by most users, yet they too could do so much better
• Year on year, there’s been no changes in standards compliance rankings with Chrome continuing to lead, followed by Edge and then Safari. Firefox remains a distant fourth.
• Browser competition is more intense than ever, with only a 2 point total score gap between the top three placings. In 2025, that spread was 6 points – demonstrating the impact that focused year-on-year improvements can make to a browser’s rankings

Fastest Web Browser in 2026

Browser speed plays a major role in how fast websites load and how responsive they feel.

To identify the fastest web browser in 2026, we tested each browser for load times, responsiveness, and overall performance — focusing on real-world speed that directly affects everyday browsing.

Each browser was tested three times, with average scores used for final rankings. We used Speedometer v3.1 to measure web app responsiveness through simulated user interactions, and JetStream v2.2 to benchmark JavaScript and WebAssembly performance, providing a well-rounded view of overall browser speed.

In a major upset, Chrome has now equalled Safari as the fastest browser available for general web browsing performance.

Over the last 2 years, Safari led all other browsers in both Speedometer and JetStream rankings. However for 2026, Chrome has managed to surpass Safari’s average Speedometer score – making the overall speed rank a shared first placing.

Microsoft Edge ranks a respectable third place for browser performance, with scores not far behind the two leaders.

Unfortunately for Firefox, the performance gap between it and the other browsers in this test is widening.

Firefox placed fourth across both speed tests and achieves only 60-80% of the speed of the fastest browsers.

Most Standards Compliant Web Browser in 2026

Web standards compliance is critical for ensuring websites render correctly and behave consistently across browsers.

To identify the most standards-compliant web browser in 2026, we evaluated how closely each browser adheres to modern web standards — a key factor for both developers and everyday users who expect reliable, predictable performance.

Our rankings combine results from two widely respected benchmarks.

First, we used the Interop 2025 (Stable) test suite, which measures browser conformance against priority standards agreed upon by browser vendors within the WHATWG.

Second, we incorporated caniuse.com browser scores, which track support for widely adopted web features (excluding unofficial ones). While caniuse does not cover every web technology and includes some non-priority features, it provides a valuable real-world view of standards support across browsers.

As in 2025, Chrome continues to lead in our standards compliance test. Although not achieving the highest score for Interop 2025, Chrome’s long term support of other web standards, as illustrated in the caniuse score, means that it can still claim to be the most standards compliant browser in 2026.

As per 2025, Edge manages a very close second placing, only 2 points behind Chrome’s standard compliance total.

Safari’s lack of support for a broader range of web standards reflects its continuing third placing. Safari needs a lot of work for it to be able to achieve web standards parity with Chrome and Edge.

Finally, Firefox trails in fourth place for web standards compliance.

Web Browser with the Best Graphics Performance

Graphics performance plays a key role in how smooth and responsive modern websites feel. From advanced web apps to browser-based games, fast rendering and fluid animations matter.

In this section, we test each browser’s graphics capabilities to determine which delivers the best visual performance in 2026.

Using the Motion Mark v1.3.1 test suite at 60 fps, Safari easily wins and beats Chrome (in second place) with almost 25% faster graphics performance.

In 2025, Safari also led, with an almost 11% MotionMark score improvement year-on-year.

Unfortunately for Firefox, it’s already lacklustre graphics performance, seems to have regressed further.

In 2026, Firefox achieved a 15% lower MotionMark score than in 2025. This may indicate potential issues or regressions to its graphics rendering pipeline during the year.

Most Energy Efficient Web Browser

Energy efficiency has a direct impact on battery life, device heat, and fan noise — especially on laptops and other portable devices.

The most energy-efficient web browser lets you browse longer without sacrificing performance, while also reducing overall power consumption.

To rank browsers in this category, we measured total energy usage using macOS Activity Monitor’s 12-hour Power metric, where lower scores indicate better efficiency. Each browser completed three rounds of the Speedometer, JetStream, and MotionMark benchmarks to capture their real-world energy impact during typical browsing and graphics workloads.

Energy efficiency results were almost a complete reversal from last year – with Edge now in first place, followed by Chrome, then Firefox and finally Safari.

In fact, Edge used about 25% less energy overall than Safari.

Microsoft engineers reportedly contributed optimisations to the Chromium codebase to improve its energy efficiency on Apple devices during 2025: possibly the key reason for Edge and Chrome’s excellent energy efficiency showing.

Conversely, Safari seems to have paid an energy efficiency price due to it’s excellent results in web browsing speed and graphics rendering

Most Privacy Compliant Web Browser

Privacy remains a top concern in 2026, and your choice of web browser has a major impact on how well your data is protected online.

In this section, we evaluate which browsers offer the strongest built-in privacy protections to limit tracking, data collection, and potential user identification.

Unlike performance-based categories, privacy compliance is not measured with a benchmark. Instead, we assess each browser’s support for a defined set of essential privacy features designed to minimise the data websites can collect by default. The overall privacy score reflects how many of these protections are included and enabled out of the box, without requiring extensions or manual configuration.

Despite performing well in other categories, privacy is an area where Chrome is significantly lagging behind. Across all the privacy features tested, Chrome included none, so scored a total overall privacy score of zero.

Both Safari and Firefox support the same set of privacy features – making them infinitely better choices for privacy conscious users, and earning an equal first ranking for this category.

Edge edged slightly higher this year – primarily by including a default setting to block some trackers, ensuring it surpasses Chrome’s privacy last place.

Overall Best Web Browser in 2026

The overall best web browser in 2026 is determined by performance across every key category we test.

This ranking reflects the browser that delivers the strongest all-around experience, balancing speed, standards compliance, graphics performance, energy efficiency, and built-in privacy protections.

Safari and Chrome: Tie for Winner of the Best Web Browser in 2026

In an upset, and after years of Safari leading the best web browser tests in 2024 and 2025, Chrome has managed to tie with Safari and become an equal first place winner in 2026.

Both browsers provide excellent browsing speed and graphics performance, with Safari still having a small performance edge.

Safari’s main advantage over Chrome is its built-in privacy protections.

By blocking trackers and third party cookies by default and reducing the potential for personal identification via fingerprinting, Safari continues to provide a more privacy respecting experience.

However, Chrome’s advantage continues to be its class leading web standards compliance, while also making huge strides over the last 12 months in energy efficiency.

So as equal ranked browsers, the choice of which to select comes down to personal preference:

• For a fast, privacy respecting web browser choose Safari, however;
• If you prefer broader web standards support and energy efficiency, then the best choice is Chrome

Microsoft Edge: Respectable Third Place for 2026

Microsoft Edge performed well in 2026, ranking third thanks to respectable, widespread improvements over the past year.

Edge’s web browsing speed and standards compliance are very good, with good graphics performance and improved privacy protections. Its energy efficiency is now class leading and is an indicator of what can be achieved when a browser developer focuses on identified shortcomings.

Last year we suggested that for Edge to be a viable product, that Microsoft should re-position it as a privacy-compliant version of Chrome. Well, a small change has been made in that direction, ensuring that, along with its improved energy efficiency, Edge is the only browser that didn’t rank last in any of our testing categories.

We’d encourage Edge to continue providing focused improvements in 2026. Perhaps by strategically focusing on privacy, it could emerge as a first place contender for 2027.

Firefox: Falling Behind With No Substantial Improvements In-Sight

If privacy is important to you and you’re looking for an alternative to Safari, Firefox is a potential option. It’s the only cross-platform, privacy-compliant browser that we tested.

Firefox’s browsing speed, graphics performance and standards compliance however are lacking – though it is relatively energy efficient.

But with all other browsers making significant yearly performance and standards compliance improvements, Firefox is falling behind.

Unless big changes are made soon, Firefox risks becoming an outdated, irrelevant browser.

This comparison was last updated in January 2026 and compares Safari Version 26.2 (21623.1.14.11.9), Chrome Version 143.0.7499.193, Firefox 146.0.1 and Edge Version 143.0.3650.96 all running on macOS Tahoe 26.2.

The test machine was an M2 MacBook Air 15” with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.