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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

agent-browser vs Steel

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on security & auth. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. agent-browser doesn't.

agent-browserVercel Labs · MCP server B66.6/100#263 of 841 SteelNen Labs, Inc. · HTTP API BB70.4/100#149 of 841

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 56

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

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

Steel BB

Good for Agents that need a real cloud browser with persistent profiles, stored logins, CAPTCHA solving and a human takeover path, and teams that want an open-source runtime they can also self-host.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 58 against 48
  • Payments & pricing, 75 against 60
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 70

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Three incidents of more than an hour hit the API or session creation in the 90 days to 8 October 2026, the longest 5 hours 41 minutes

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runagent-browserSteelEdge
Reliability16%204858Steel +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28486Steel +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.27879Steel +1
Security & auth14%17.56756agent-browser +11
Payments & pricing10%12.56075Steel +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87082Steel +12
Transparency & trust7%8.86164Steel +3
Negative events≤1500
Total66.6 · B70.4 · BB

Facts side by side

Factagent-browserSteel
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorVercel LabsNen Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.steel.dev
TransportsstdioHTTP, stdio
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402noyes, from $0.01/call
LicenceApache-2.0Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT
Tools exposed158none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-02
Terms last updatedno document linked2025-02-05
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-02-05
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity44k stars, 2.1M npm/wk47k npm/wk, 63k 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.

Steel

The hosted API has a public OpenAPI document, per-unit prices, $30 of starting credit and x402 payment for scrape, screenshot and PDF calls. The status page records three API or session-creation incidents of more than an hour in 90 days, and the documented CDP connection puts the API key in the URL.

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

Steel

  1. Use POST /v1/scrape for pages you only need to read. It starts no session and costs $5 per 1,000 calls, or $0.01 a call by x402
  2. Release every session with POST /v1/sessions/{id}/release and set inactivityTimeout. Browser time bills by the minute, rounded up
  3. Build the CDP URL as wss://connect.steel.dev?apiKey=<key>&sessionId=<id> and keep it out of logs, because it carries the key
  4. Launch sessions end after 15 minutes at most, and timeout cannot be changed on a live session
  5. CAPTCHA solving and Steel's managed proxies on Launch need $10 of paid balance. Free credit does not count

Questions

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

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on security & auth.

Do agent-browser and Steel need an API key?

agent-browser needs no key. Steel needs an API key. An agent can also pay Steel per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call agent-browser and Steel without installing anything?

agent-browser runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Steel has a hosted endpoint at https://api.steel.dev.

Are agent-browser and Steel open source?

Yes. agent-browser is open source (Apache-2.0). Steel is open source (Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT).

Other comparisons with agent-browser or Steel

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