# agent-browser vs Selenium

> Selenium scores 73.6 (BB) to agent-browser's 66.6 (B) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Selenium scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do browser automation.

- agent-browser: grade B, 66.6/100, rank #301 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-browser.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-browser.json
- Selenium: grade BB, 73.6/100, rank #90 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/selenium.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/selenium.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 120 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md

## Which one, for what

### agent-browser (B)

Good for: Coding agents with a shell that want short commands and compact snapshots.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70
- Security & auth, 67 against 43

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: The ten most recent CI runs on main, 1 to 8 October 2026, all concluded in failure. In the newest, Windows Rust tests and native end-to-end tests failed

### Selenium (BB)

Good for: Agents that write test or automation scripts in any of five languages, and teams with a Grid.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 84
- Maintenance & community, 94 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: No MCP server from the project. The docs point to community servers and say they are third-party


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | agent-browser | Selenium | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 90 | Selenium +42 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 89 | Selenium +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 70 | agent-browser +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 43 | agent-browser +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 94 | Selenium +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 74 | Selenium +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.6 · B** | **73.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | agent-browser | Selenium |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Vercel Labs | Selenium project (Software Freedom Conservancy) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 158 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 44k stars, 2.1M npm/wk | 35k stars, 1.8M npm/wk, 6.9M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**agent-browser.** Snapshots with element refs, a 29-tool default MCP profile and opt-in domain allowlists, action policies and content boundary markers suit agent use. The project is at 0.38.2 with no stable release, the ten most recent CI runs on main failed between 1 and 8 October 2026, and every security control is off by default.

**Selenium.** Selenium is stable, Apache-2.0 software on 4.51.0 with bindings in five languages, CI passing on trunk, an llms.txt and an agent guide added in September 2026. It has no MCP server of its own, Selenium Manager sends usage statistics by default, and Grid accepts unauthenticated sessions unless a username and password are set.

## Before you call either

### agent-browser

1. Run `agent-browser install` once after `npm install -g agent-browser`. It downloads Chrome for Testing
2. Take a fresh `snapshot -i` after any navigation. Refs survive same-document changes only
3. Pass `--json` for machine-readable results and `--max-output` to cap page text
4. Set `--allowed-domains`, `--action-policy` and `--content-boundaries` for untrusted sites. None is on by default, and the allowlist rejects `--profile`, `--cdp` and `--restore`
5. Start MCP with `agent-browser mcp`, and add profiles such as `--tools core,network` only when needed

### Selenium

1. Install with `pip install selenium` (Python 3.10 or later) and let Selenium Manager fetch drivers. Do not set driver paths
2. Use `WebDriverWait` with expected conditions, never fixed sleeps, and do not mix implicit and explicit waits
3. Set `SE_AVOID_STATS=true` to stop Selenium Manager sending usage statistics
4. Point coding agents at https://www.selenium.dev/llms.txt. Most Selenium 2 and 3 era examples use removed APIs
5. Set `--username` and `--password` before exposing a Grid beyond localhost. Check `http://localhost:4444/status` before creating sessions

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, agent-browser or Selenium?

Selenium scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

### Can an agent call agent-browser and Selenium without installing anything?

agent-browser runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for Selenium.

### Are agent-browser and Selenium open source?

Yes. agent-browser is open source (Apache-2.0). Selenium is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-selenium.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agent-browser", "b": "selenium"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-browser selenium`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-browser.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/selenium.json

## Other comparisons with agent-browser or Selenium

- [agent-browser vs Airtop](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-airtop.md)
- [agent-browser vs Anchor Browser](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-anchor-browser.md)
- [agent-browser vs Browser Use](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-browser-use.md)
- [agent-browser vs Browserbase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-browserbase.md)
- [agent-browser vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-browserless.md)
- [agent-browser vs Chrome DevTools MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-chrome-devtools-mcp.md)
- [agent-browser vs Hyperbrowser](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-hyperbrowser.md)
- [agent-browser vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-notte.md)
- [agent-browser vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [agent-browser vs Puppeteer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-puppeteer.md)
- [agent-browser vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
- [agent-browser vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern.md)
- [agent-browser vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-steel.md)
- [agent-browser vs TinyFish](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-tinyfish.md)
- [Airtop vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-selenium.md)
- [Anchor Browser vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-browser-vs-selenium.md)
- [Browser Use vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.md)
- [Browserbase vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-selenium.md)
- [Browserless vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-selenium.md)
- [Chrome DevTools MCP vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chrome-devtools-mcp-vs-selenium.md)
- [Hyperbrowser vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperbrowser-vs-selenium.md)
- [Notte vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notte-vs-selenium.md)
- [Playwright MCP vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playwright-mcp-vs-selenium.md)
- [Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-reference-server-archived-vs-selenium.md)
- [Puppeteer vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-selenium.md)
- [Selenium vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/selenium-vs-skyvern.md)
- [Selenium vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/selenium-vs-steel.md)
- [Selenium vs TinyFish](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/selenium-vs-tinyfish.md)