User guide · what's new

What's new.

Every public version and what it brought, as the release page says it. A running Kestrel Browser fetches a new version by itself within the hour and asks for one restart; the download page has the installers.

v0.4.1 · 2026-09-23

A small update with three fixes, nothing new to learn.

What is fixed

  • On Windows, a page that asked for a new window while another tab was being made could freeze Kestrel Browser for good. It cannot any more.
  • A tab could be created twice when two things asked for tabs at the same moment.
  • The window that tells you a new version is ready now says one sentence.

Install or update

  • Already running v0.4: Kestrel Browser downloads v0.4.1 by itself within the hour and asks you for one restart. Running v0.3: the same. Running v0.2: it offers v0.4.1 shortly after a start.
  • New on a Mac (Apple Silicon, macOS 12 or later): download KestrelBrowser-0.4.1-aarch64.dmg, open it and drag Kestrel Browser to Applications. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens on a double click.
  • New on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit): download KestrelBrowser-0.4.1-x64-setup.exe and open it. Windows warns once because this build is not signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • Check a file first if you like: its SHA-256 is in SHA256SUMS-macos.txt or SHA256SUMS-windows.txt.

The Kestrel Team

The release and its files

v0.4 · 2026-09-22

What is new

  • Premium is one clear thing now. Two tiers: Free pays a Kestrel fee of 0.25 percent of a swap's SOL side, Premium pays none and its alerts follow 25 wallets instead of one. Premium is 1,000,000 $KESTREL held in the wallet inside Kestrel Browser: nothing is sent, locked or signed, the app only reads the balance. One page explains all of it, kestrel://premium, and every place a tier shows links to it; the official token wears an OFFICIAL mark wherever the app shows it.
  • Hover reads X's token cards. A token shared on X the new way, as a $TICKER with X's own card under the post, opens the Kestrel card from the card and from the tag, and X's token page opens it from its header. A written address works as before.
  • A Bubblemap on every Hover card, and a Holders page in every Desk: the token's holder map opens beside the page with one press.
  • Every Solana card has its chart again, from the venue's own candles.
  • Your wallet address can be hidden with a press, on the start page, on the wallet's password screen and in the toolbar chip, for screen shares and recordings.
  • The wallet's "hold $KESTREL" line and the Premium page's official address open the token's card on a hover.
  • Swaps keep working when Jupiter moves house: the app knows Jupiter's second address and switches by itself.
  • A macOS freeze that could stop the app for good is fixed, and a frozen or crashed Kestrel Browser now reports what it was doing, under the same statistics switch, so we can fix what you meet. The privacy page says exactly what such a report carries.
  • The app's random install id now travels only to kestrelbrowser.com; no market or safety service receives it any more.
  • Smaller things: the Markets card on the start page reads the pool where the trading is, the Trade pane's dots are dots again, the wallet's tier block sits under the tokens, and the backup reminder keeps its margins.

Install or update

  • Already running v0.3: Kestrel Browser downloads v0.4 by itself within the hour, or choose Check for Updates in the menu, and asks you for one restart. Running v0.2: it offers v0.4 shortly after a start; choose Install now and it restarts as v0.4.
  • New on a Mac (Apple Silicon, macOS 12 or later): download KestrelBrowser-0.4-aarch64.dmg, open it and drag Kestrel Browser to Applications. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens on a double click.
  • New on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit): download KestrelBrowser-0.4-x64-setup.exe and open it. Windows warns once because this build is not signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • Check a file first if you like: its SHA-256 is in SHA256SUMS-macos.txt or SHA256SUMS-windows.txt.

Early access The wallet is real and the money is real, and the software is young. Use amounts you can afford to lose and keep your recovery phrase on paper. Tell us what worked and what you wish it did: hello@kestrelbrowser.com.

The Kestrel Team

The release and its files

v0.3 · 2026-09-18

What is new

  • A new start page: a calm sky, a search box of its own, your everyday places as tiles, and four cards that answer at a glance: where you were, what your wallet holds, where SOL, BTC and ETH stand, and what Shield is doing. It follows the light and the dark theme and fits beside the rail or inside a pane.
  • Your wallet shows what it is worth: one total in SOL with its dollar value, the SOL and every token at its price, each token with its own worth, the largest first. Tiny values are written short (0.0₅251), a thin bar shows when the next valuation comes, and the toolbar chip shows the same total and follows your trades within seconds.
  • A modern address bar: your history, top sites, open tabs and searches in a list under the bar, completion as you type, what you typed kept per tab, quick modes with @, a calculator, and a token address opening its Hover card.
  • A light look, and Kestrel Browser opens in it; the dark one is under Settings, Appearance. Every page that offers both looks follows your choice.
  • Kestrel Browser keeps itself up to date: a new version downloads and gets ready in the background and asks for one restart when it suits you.
  • Shield knows the world's ten thousand most visited sites, shows its full block page with your choices when a link you press leads somewhere bad, and counts on its badge what a page reached for by itself.
  • Tabs show their real site icons from the first moment, also after a restart.
  • Windows starts steadier and stays responsive on slow disks.
  • Dozens of refinements across Settings, Simple mode, Alerts and the wallet.

Launch week Until Monday, September 21, every feature is open to everyone and swaps carry no Kestrel fee.

Install or update

  • Already running v0.2: Kestrel Browser offers v0.3 by itself shortly after a start, or choose Check for Updates in the menu. Choose Install now and it restarts as v0.3. From v0.3 on, updates install themselves and ask for one restart.
  • New on a Mac (Apple Silicon, macOS 12 or later): download KestrelBrowser-0.3-aarch64.dmg, open it and drag Kestrel Browser to Applications. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens on a double click.
  • New on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit): download KestrelBrowser-0.3-x64-setup.exe and open it. Windows warns once because this build is not signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • Check a file first if you like: its SHA-256 is in SHA256SUMS-macos.txt or SHA256SUMS-windows.txt.

Early access The wallet is real and the money is real, and the software is young. Use amounts you can afford to lose and keep your recovery phrase on paper. Tell us what worked and what you wish it did: hello@kestrelbrowser.com.

The Kestrel Team

The release and its files

v0.2 · 2026-09-14

Kestrel Browser v0.2, the first public release.

Launch week From this release until Monday, September 21, every feature is open to everyone and swaps carry no Kestrel fee at all. Nothing to hold, nothing to claim.

What is new since the waitlist build

  • The Hover card is Kestrel Browser's own window floating above the page, not a piece of the page, and everything on it is one click: three buy amounts, Buy All, and Sell 25, 50, 75 percent or all of it. Every trade still goes through Shield: read, simulate, then sign.
  • The card shows prices, market cap, liquidity, 24 hour volume and the moves within about a third of a second, with the safety checks right behind them; the holder count is the one explorers show.
  • More pages and more addresses: long X timelines and search results to the end, addresses shared as shortened links, lists that never stop moving such as GMGN's new pairs, and the page's own token from the header on pump.fun, DexScreener and fomo.family.
  • Tokens on Base, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Robinhood Chain and more get a card that names the network and where the token trades; the safety report and trading are Solana today, fuller support for the other networks is on the way.
  • Well-known assets such as wrapped BTC, cbBTC, WETH and ZEC are recognised as established, and their issuers' controls are shown as facts instead of counted as risks.
  • Trade explains itself, one button naming the step about to happen; buying turns the pane green, selling red. The wallet is clearer, and selling from the card and the pane is smoother.
  • The address bar keeps up with modern sites, one click in it selects the whole address, and sign-in windows of the "Continue with Google" kind open as the sites expect and are checked by Shield before they load.
  • A new look: cobalt blue with one meaning per colour, two typefaces, calm near black surfaces. A cleaner start on Windows, and Radar keeps its lists when its data source is busy.

Install or update

  • Already running the waitlist build: open Kestrel Browser, open the menu (the ≡ button at the top left on Windows, the Help menu on a Mac) and choose Check for Updates. It offers v0.2, downloads it and restarts as v0.2; it also checks by itself half a minute after every start.
  • New install: download KestrelBrowser-0.2-x64-setup.exe below and open it. Windows warns once because this build is not signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • Check the file first if you like: certutil -hashfile KestrelBrowser-0.2-x64-setup.exe SHA256 must match the line in SHA256SUMS-windows.txt.

Early access The wallet is real and the money is real, but the software is young. Use amounts you can afford to lose and keep your recovery phrase on paper. Tell us what worked, what broke and what you wish it did: hello@kestrelbrowser.com.

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. macOS follows.

The release and its files

v0.1 · 2026-09-12

Kestrel Browser 0.1.0, the first Windows beta.

What it does

  • Hover: every contract address on X, Telegram Web, Discord, DexScreener and pump.fun turns into a card in place: price, liquidity, holders, the safety checks and a score. One click buys from the card.
  • Shield: every site is checked against 430,000 known drainer and phishing domains before it loads; every transaction is read, simulated and explained before it is signed.
  • Wallet: created on your computer, keys never leave it. Buy and sell from the rail with a Kestrel fee of 0.85 percent.
  • Radar: new pairs, final stretch, migrated and trending, refreshing on a visible timer.

Install

  1. Download KestrelBrowser-0.1.0-x64-setup.exe below and open it.
  2. Windows warns once because this build is not signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  3. Check the file first if you like: certutil -hashfile KestrelBrowser-0.1.0-x64-setup.exe SHA256 must match the line in SHA256SUMS-windows.txt and on https://kestrelbrowser.com/download.

Early access The wallet is real and the money is real, but the software is young. Use amounts you can afford to lose and keep your recovery phrase on paper. Tell us what worked, what broke and what you wish it did: hello@kestrelbrowser.com.

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. macOS follows.

The release and its files