Mozilla has disabled the AI-powered tab grouping feature, introduced in Firefox version 141, due to serious performance issues. Following user feedback, the company confirmed that the feature was causing issues such as high CPU usage and increased battery consumption. A fix is currently being developed to address these issues.

Firefox has disabled this AI feature

With the Firefox 141.x update released on July 22, an AI feature was introduced that automatically groups similar tabs and suggests names for these groups. It was stated that user privacy was paramount and that the operations were performed entirely on the device, meaning locally. However, contrary to expectations, this update was met with performance issues.

According to user reports, CPU usage fluctuated between 0.05% and 130% while the AI model was running. This, particularly on laptops, caused the processor to work harder than usual, resulting in faster battery drain and a decrease in overall system performance. Furthermore, manually disabling the feature reportedly caused the browser to behave unstably.

Mozilla states that the feature is being rolled out in phases, aiming to catch bugs more quickly by gathering feedback early on. However, neither the 141.0.2 nor the 141.0.3 release notes included any fixes for this feature. This left users with insufficient information regarding bug tracking and updates.

The company is continuing to work on this feature, and a version free of performance issues is expected to be released in future releases.