# agent-browser vs Skyvern

> agent-browser scores 66.6 (B) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern.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: 2026-10-09

agent-browser scores 66.6 (B) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- agent-browser: grade B, 66.6/100, rank #263 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-browser.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-browser.json
- Skyvern: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #369 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyvern.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyvern.json

## Which one, for what

### agent-browser (B)

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

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 67 against 59
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 32

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Skyvern loses 3 points for them

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

### Skyvern (B)

Good for: Agents that must finish a multi-step job on sites with logins, 2FA and forms, where stored credentials, saved workflows and cached scripts matter more than raw browser time.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 48
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 61

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Every API key and OAuth token has full organisation authority. The docs state there are no read-only, per-endpoint or per-resource keys


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | agent-browser | Skyvern | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 57 | Skyvern +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 88 | Skyvern +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 76 | agent-browser +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 59 | agent-browser +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 32 | agent-browser +28 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 85 | Skyvern +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 72 | Skyvern +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **66.6 · B** | **63.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | agent-browser | Skyvern |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Vercel Labs | Ikonomos Inc. (Skyvern) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.skyvern.com/v1` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository |
| Tools exposed | 158 | 114 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.Skyvern-AI/skyvern` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-02-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 44k stars, 2.1M npm/wk | 23k stars, 3.2k npm/wk, 1.6k 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.

**Skyvern.** The hosted MCP server annotates every tool as read-only or destructive and can advertise a 29 or 32-tool subset in place of 114, and the API has a written six-month deprecation policy. Every key and OAuth token carries full organisation authority, with no read-only or scoped credential, and no request rate limits are documented.

## 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

### Skyvern

1. Connect to https://api.skyvern.com/mcp/x/lean or /x/operate, or send `X-Skyvern-Scope`, so the client loads 32 or 29 tools. The scope filters the list and does not limit permissions
2. Use a separate Skyvern organisation for each blast radius. Any key or OAuth token can read and write stored credentials and delete workflows
3. Never pass passwords to `skyvern_act` or `skyvern_type`. Store them as credentials and call `skyvern_login`
4. Set `max_steps` on tasks, or `x-max-steps-override` on agent runs, to cap credits. A run that reaches the cap ends as `timed_out`
5. On 503 from POST /v1/run/agents, wait `Retry-After` seconds. No run was created, so resubmitting is safe

## Questions

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

agent-browser scores 66.6 (B) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do agent-browser and Skyvern need an API key?

agent-browser needs no key. Skyvern takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

agent-browser runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Skyvern has a hosted endpoint at https://api.skyvern.com/v1.

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

Yes. agent-browser is open source (Apache-2.0). Skyvern is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with agent-browser or Skyvern

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