Mozilla’s brief experiment with browser-based AI assistance is coming to an end. The company has announced that Orbit, its Firefox extension for summarizing web content, will shut down on June 26, 2025.
We spotted a banner on Orbit’s official website that says: “Orbit will shut down on June 26, 2025. On June 26, you will no longer be able to use the Orbit extension. Thanks for supporting our journey.”
Here’s a screenshot of the same:
The shutdown comes just six months after Orbit launched in December 2024 as Mozilla’s entry into the AI assistant space. The Firefox extension promised to help users quickly digest long emails, articles, documents, and videos without compromising privacy.
Orbit worked by adding a floating button to web pages that offered three main functions. Users could summarize content with a single click, ask questions about what they were reading, or adjust settings for their preferred summary format. The tool functioned across major websites including Gmail, YouTube, Wikipedia, and news sites.
What set Orbit apart from other AI assistants was Mozilla’s commitment to user privacy. The extension didn’t require account creation and erased all session data when users navigated away from a page. Mozilla hosted the underlying Mistral 7B language model on its own servers rather than sharing user queries with external services.
“Your personal information is not stored or shared,” Mozilla emphasized in Orbit’s documentation. The company made it clear that user data wouldn’t be used to train AI models, though this meant they couldn’t improve the service through user feedback.
Despite these privacy-focused features, Orbit had notable limitations. The extension only worked in Firefox on desktop platforms and was restricted to English-language content. Large language models also struggled with extremely long content, sometimes providing only surface-level summaries of lengthy videos or complex documents.
But what went wrong? It’s hard to say for sure without the inside scoop, but building an AI tool like this isn’t cheap or easy. Plus, let’s be real — the AI assistant space is packed. Big players like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini have resources Mozilla can only dream of. Maybe Orbit just didn’t catch on fast enough to justify the cost.
It’s a bummer, though. Orbit had a lot going for it, especially that privacy-first vibe. For Firefox fans, it was a cool perk baked right into the browser. But tech is a brutal game — sometimes even solid ideas don’t make it. If you’re using Orbit now, you’ve got until June 26, 2025, to enjoy it. After that, it’s back to skimming long emails the old-fashioned way. Tough break, but that’s how it goes in the wild world of innovation.
TechIssuesToday primarily focuses on publishing 'breaking' or 'exclusive' tech news. This means, we are usually the first news website on the whole Internet to highlight the topics we cover daily. So far, our stories have been picked up by many mainstream technology publications like The Verge, Macrumors, Forbes, etc. To know more, head here.
Dwayne Cubbins
1043 Posts
For nearly a decade, I've been deciphering the complexities of the tech world, with a particular passion for helping users navigate the ever-changing tech landscape. From crafting in-depth guides that unlock your phone's hidden potential to uncovering and explaining the latest bugs and glitches, I make sure you get the most out of your devices. And yes, you might occasionally find me ranting about some truly frustrating tech mishaps.
Follow Us
