’m experiencing what appears to be the identical problem. The Browser Connector repeatedly shows that it is disconnected or that the connection has expired. When ChatGPT attempts to access Opera, I receive the same error:

“Extension communication error

Failed to forward request to the browser-operator extension: Protocol error communicating with the extension.”

I have completely removed and reinstalled Opera, deleted its associated profile and support files, disconnected and reconnected the ChatGPT plugin, signed out and back into my Opera account, and temporarily disabled my firewall. The problem remains unchanged.

Based on the wording of the error and the troubleshooting already completed, this appears to be an internal communication failure between Opera’s Browser Connector and its browser-operator extension—not simply a failed connection between ChatGPT and Opera. The connector authorization appears to complete, but Opera cannot successfully forward requests to the internal extension.