Measured before every release
Ardia vs Dia vs Helium: Benchmarks.
Ardia against Dia and Helium: 24 tests, same Mac, every release. Helium takes 3. They’re in here too.
Cold launch → window on screen
8×
faster than Dia
26% faster than Helium
Cold launch → window on screen, in ms, median of 6+ runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia (best) 280 ms Dia 2,262 ms Helium 353 ms Cold launch → page painted
6.3×
faster than Dia
4% faster than Helium
Cold launch → page painted (link opened from another app), in ms, median of 6+ runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia (best) 413 ms Dia 2,643 ms Helium 432 ms Idle CPU
Ardia 4 of 4
1 tab
3.9×
less CPU than Dia
5% less CPU than Helium
Idle CPU, in %. Median of 3+ runs · Lower is better. % Ardia Dia Helium 1 tab 0.16 (best) 0.63 0.17 20 tabs 0.45 (best) 1.1 1.0 1 tab, settled 0.05 (best) not measured 0.09 20 tabs, settled 0.31 (best) not measured 0.47 Idle wakeups
Ardia 4 of 4
20 tabs
2.8×
fewer wakeups than Dia
2× fewer wakeups than Helium
Idle wakeups, in /s. Median of 3+ runs · Lower is better. /s Ardia Dia Helium 20 tabs 13.6 (best) 38.7 28.2 1 tab 5.3 (best) 14.4 5.9 1 tab, settled 3.1 (best) not measured 4.5 20 tabs, settled 11.8 (best) not measured 17.1 New window → first paint
1.8×
faster than Dia
9% faster than Helium
New window → first paint, in ms, median of 3+ runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia (best) 79.9 ms Dia 144 ms Helium 87.8 ms Memory
Ardia 4 of 4
10 tabs
1.7×
less memory than Dia
7% less memory than Helium
Memory, in MB. Median of 3+ runs · Lower is better. MB Ardia Dia Helium 10 tabs 714 (best) 1,273 773 20 tabs 1,082 (best) 1,822 1,121 1 tab 298 (best) 480 374 Back to 1 tab after 20 358 (best) 538 411 Tab switch → shown
Helium wins this one
3%Photo finish
faster than Ardia
Ardia’s still 1.7× faster than Dia.
Tab switch → shown, in ms, median of 3+ runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia 14.0 ms Dia 24.0 ms Helium (best) 13.5 ms New tab → first paint
1.6×
faster than Dia
30% faster than Helium
New tab → first paint, in ms, median of 3+ runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia (best) 54.9 ms Dia 88.9 ms Helium 71.5 ms Speedometer 3
1%Photo finish
faster than Dia
Speedometer 3, in points, median of 6 runs, higher is better Browser Median Ardia (best) 59.1 points Dia 58.2 points Helium 58.6 points Cold launch → restored tab painted
Helium wins this one
1%Photo finish
faster than Ardia
Cold launch → restored tab painted, in ms, median of 6 runs, lower is better Browser Median Ardia 360 ms Dia not measured Helium (best) 355 ms Power with 11 tabs open
Ardia 4 of 5
Idle, window in view
242×
less power than Dia
12% less power than Helium
Power with 11 tabs open, in mW. Median of 2 runs · Lower is better. mW Ardia Dia Helium Idle, window hidden 3.9 1,223 3.1 (best) Idle, window in view 3.5 (best) 848 4.0 Scrolling 28.2 (best) 626 51.9 Playing a video 82.0 (best) 779 90.9 Switching tabs 136 (best) 763 173 Helium takes idle, window hidden: 3.1 mW to Ardia’s 3.9 mW.
The small print
MacBook Pro (Mac17,9), Apple M5 Pro, 48 GB, macOS 27.2 (26B5112a), Oct 19, 2026. Ardia 0.2.38-nightly.8 (Chromium 155.0.8059.84), Dia 1.53.0 (Chromium 155.0.8059.80), Helium 0.19.3.1 (Chromium 155.0.8059.79).
Every figure is a median, so one lucky run doesn’t count.
How we measure
The method
No warm starts.
Same Mac, same script, same pages for every browser. The rows Ardia loses stay on the board.
- The Mac
- MacBook Pro (Mac17,9), Apple M5 Pro, 48 GB, macOS 27.2 (26B5112a), on Oct 19, 2026. It’s the owner’s working Mac in normal use, so the browsers take turns and share whatever else is going on.
- The browsers
- Ardia 0.2.38-nightly.8 (Chromium 155.0.8059.84), Dia 1.53.0 (Chromium 155.0.8059.80), Helium 0.19.3.1 (Chromium 155.0.8059.79). Default settings, built-in ad blockers as shipped, each from its own clean profile.
- The runs
- One harness drives every browser from outside, on the same local test pages, one at a time, interleaved and rotated each round so nobody always goes first. Every figure is a median, so one lucky run doesn’t count.
- The tests
- Cold launch to a window, to a link and to a restored tab; new tab, new window and tab switch; memory with 1, 10 and 20 tabs; idle CPU and wakeups; Speedometer 3; and power with 11 tabs open, idle, scrolling, switching and playing video.
- Release to release
- Every stable release is also measured against the one before it. When one gets faster, its release notes say by how much.
Same engine as Chrome
Better
view.
Make Ardia your default. It’s one drag into Applications.
Mac only for now. Tell me when it's on WindowsLinuxyour computer.
On GitHub: Watch › Custom › Releases. No email, no newsletter.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon · Notarized by Apple
Nightly gets every fix the day it’s made, smudges and all. Back to stable any time in Settings › General.
Homebrew: brew install mantrakp04/tap/ardia
