● Opera Mini, with over 100M users worldwide, now offers AI integration in the browser
● According to Opera survey, 89% of Nigerians are interested to try an AI tool integrated in the browser
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● Opera Mini now provides all its smartphone users with its own free built-in browser AI, Aria, including AI chat, Ask Aria and image generation, responding to the demand of 86% of Nigerians to use AI from a trusted brand
● 59% of Nigerians say data is too expensive, so Opera offers its users free data packages in Nigeria to allow people to browse more, and Aria is a part of that offer
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● As a response to data costs surge in Nigeria, Aria is available within Free Data offerings, so users will minimize their data usage when exploring AI
Lagos, Nigeria – April 16, 2025 – Opera is adding its free browser AI, Aria, to Opera Mini, its popular Android-based browser with millions of users in Nigeria. This update brings powerful AI capabilities, such as up-to-date information from the web, research assistance, content summarization, and image generation directly into the browser at no additional cost.
“AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of the daily internet experience, and we’re seeing a great interest in AI solutions among Nigerians, so bringing Aria to Opera Mini is a natural addition to our most-downloaded browser. With the integration of our built-in AI, Aria, we’re excited to explore how AI can further enhance the feature set our Nigerian users rely on every day,” said Jørgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera.
Opera Mini is known and appreciated for numerous unique features – from live football scores to the built-in digital wallet MiniPay, and now – also Aria.
Addressing data costs – a priority for Nigerian users
While internet access is becoming increasingly more available for Nigerians, nearly 55% of the country’s population still don’t have web access. Moreover, the cost of the internet is unproportionally high compared to the income or GDP per capita. Recently, data costs in Nigeria have surged even further, by 40-50%, due to new local communications regulations and tariffs. Some data plans such as 15GB rose from ₦4,500 to ₦6,500, and 20GB plans – from ₦5,500 to ₦7,500. According to an Opera survey from March 2025, 59% of Nigerians said data is too expensive, and more than half (55%) reported they regularly run out of data before the end of the month: data consumption remains a key concern in the country.
For years, Opera Mini has played a key role in enabling internet access across Nigeria. Opera Mini’s turbo data-saving mode can reduce data usage by up to 90% compared to other major browsers. For the past three years, Opera has saved Nigerians an equivalent of $27M in data (60M GB) through this unique data compression technology. The free data campaigns, active since 2020, allow Nigerians using Opera Mini to benefit from 1.5GB each month for free, which can be used for anything, including interacting with Aria. Since 2022, Opera has invested millions of dollars in free data campaigns in Nigeria, bridging the digital divide and ensuring information access.
With Aria integrated into Opera Mini, users get the benefits of an advanced AI tool without sacrificing precious data. Aria is optimized for minimal data consumption and is included within Opera’s free daily data bundles in Nigeria — making it an ideal solution for the 46% of Nigerians who said they would use AI tools only if they didn’t add to data usage.
Aria – Opera’s native built-in AI
Aria browser AI integrates into Opera’s browsers on both desktop and mobile to enable an accessible chat-based interface to AI. It enhances user interaction through information retrieval, text or code generation, image generation and understanding. Aria is powered by Opera’s own Composer AI engine, which utilizes both OpenAI and Google AI technologies to provide the most relevant answers, and it integrates image generation through Google’s Imagen3 fast model. With today’s update, Aria is now available across all Opera browsers. For the 47%* Nigerians surveyed who already use AI tools several times a day, and for the 67% who rely on AI for academic purposes, Aria within Opera Mini offers a way to make those experiences even more accessible and affordable. Aria is completely free to use.
There are more exciting and unique features coming to Opera Mini soon – and some of those are being built for football fans across Nigeria!
To use Aria in Opera Mini, download or update via the Google Play Store.
About Opera Mini
Launched in 2005, Opera Mini is a small, fast, and powerful browser. It comes with unique features such as Data Compression, Offline File Sharing, and a built-in ad-blocker. Today, Opera Mini has been downloaded over 1 billion times on the Google Play Store by people who chose it over the pre-installed browsers on Android mobile devices. Opera Mini has a 4.6 star rating on Google Play and has been reviewed by more than eight million people worldwide.
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