# Airtop vs AutoCua

> Airtop scores 54.5 (C) to AutoCua's 44.3 (E) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-autocua
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-autocua.md (~4,650 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-06

Airtop scores 54.5 (C) on agent readiness against AutoCua's 44.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AutoCua leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do browser automation.

- Airtop: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #816 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airtop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtop.json
- AutoCua: grade E, 44.3/100, rank #1100 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/autocua.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/autocua.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 230 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md
- Best desktop and mobile app automation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/desktop-automation/index.md
- All 48 desktop comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/desktop-automation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Airtop (C)

Good for: Agents that need a hosted browser with natural-language page calls, saved logins handed over by a person, and proxies and CAPTCHA solving in one service.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 42
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 55
- Security & auth, 46 against 38
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 42

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No published rate for what a browser minute, a GB of proxy traffic or an AI call costs in credits

### AutoCua (E)

Good for: Developers who want a local agent to operate desktop apps, their own browser or phones across platforms, on a machine they control.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 65 against 14

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Two weeks old at version 0.1.9, with no changelog file


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: AutoCua +51

- Airtop (14): Graded on the browser API. The newest stable release is the Node SDK's 0.1.47, tagged on 6 November 2025, 363 days before the check. The 1.0.0-alpha2 Node line (last published 1 July 2026 per the 8 October check) is a pre-release and doesn't count, the Python SDK's last tag is 0.0.49 (23 April 2025) and the docs changelog ends on 3 September 2025 (0). No three releases or dated entries since 6 August; the Agent Skill's commits of March 2026 are untagged (0). Support is by Discord and email. On GitHub the Node SDK had an issue from February 2025 still open and six pull requests open since early 2025, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November (5). Official SDKs exist but the Python one was last released on 23 April 2025, and no Airtop server is in the MCP registry (6). Both SDK repositories carry CI workflows whose results were not read (3). 0 + 0 + 5 + 6 + 3 = 14.
- AutoCua (65): v0.1.9 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Four tags in 90 days (20). Issues and pull requests weren't read (0 of 25). The PyPI wheel is current (15). No CI; dependencies pinned per OS in requirements files (0 of 10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 65.

### Reliability: Airtop +44

- Airtop (69): Graded as a hosted service, on the cloud browser API. status.airtop.ai runs on Instatus with 90 days of history, though it lists a single component, App (20). Between 6 August and 4 November 2026 its feed records no incident, only 30 minutes of scheduled maintenance on 18 August, announced at 20:37 UTC for a 23:30 start with a stated 30-minute duration, which is maintenance, not an incident. The proxies incident of 1 July falls outside the window (30). No request rate limit was found in the reviewed documentation. The pricing page gives simultaneous sessions per plan, 3, 30 and 100 (5). No 429 or backoff guidance and no idempotency keys were found. The SDK helpers retry twice by default and the CDP guides table a 503 for sessions that cannot be reached, partly met, kept (4). No SLA found for any plan (0). The API is at /v1 and sessions and windows are not marked beta, though form filling is (10). 20 + 30 + 5 + 4 + 0 + 10 = 69.
- AutoCua (25): Local package. Installs from PyPI as AutoCua with Python 3.10 or later and the supported platforms stated (20). No CI runs the tests; the only workflow, use_case_label.yml, labels issues (0). GitHub issues weren't read, so the open-issue line is scored absent (0). Four tags in a week with no changelog file (5). Version 0.1.9 (0). 20 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 25.

### Payments & pricing: AutoCua +35

- Airtop (25): No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the OpenAPI document or the pricing page (0). Plan prices are public, $0, $29, $189 and $558 a month with stated credit allowances, unchanged on 4 November, but the credits charged for browser time, proxy traffic and AI calls are not published, so plan-only (10). The Free plan renews 1,000 credits a month. Whether signup asks for a card is not stated on the pricing page or in the docs, so 15 of 20, partly met, kept. A person has to sign up in a browser to get a key (0). 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 25.
- AutoCua (60): Free self-hosted package with nothing to buy: 0 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 60.

### Schema & documentation: Airtop +34

- Airtop (76): OpenAPI 3.1 at docs.airtop.ai/openapi.json with 31 paths and 39 operations and a Bearer scheme, unchanged on 4 November (25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). 32 of 39 operations carry a description, parameter descriptions are long and specific, and the two deprecated endpoints name their replacement. Few say when not to use a call (13). Inputs carry 18 enums, required fields and bounds such as `timeoutMinutes` from 1 to 10,080, but `outputSchema` is a JSON Schema passed as a string and the proxy setting is loosely typed (11). The Markdown reference shows request and response examples. The spec declares error responses on 5 of 39 operations and no 429 anywhere, and no list of issue codes was found (8). Paths are versioned under /v1 and a dated changelog is public, but its last entry is still 3 September 2025 (9). 25 + 10 + 13 + 11 + 8 + 9 = 76.
- AutoCua (42): Framework reading. No API reference or typed interface beyond run_agent's documented arguments (5 of 25). No llms.txt (0). The README says what each mode drives and where it runs, and agent_capabilities.md lists what it can do (16 of 20). Modes and device are documented strings (6 of 15). Many examples, no documented errors (10 of 15). Tags without a changelog (5 of 15). 5 + 0 + 16 + 6 + 10 + 5 = 42.

### Transparency & trust: Airtop +20

- Airtop (62): A closed service with published terms of use (effective 28 July 2025, unchanged on 4 November). The SDKs are MIT per their repositories (17). The privacy policy (updated 2 September 2025) keeps personal data as long as necessary, with no periods, and the site and FAQ say customer data is not used for AI training, by Airtop or its model suppliers. No public DPA or retention period for session data, recordings or profiles was found (12). No deprecation policy. Deprecated fields and two deprecated endpoints are marked in the reference with replacements and no dates, partly met, kept (5). The privacy policy says hosting is in the United States, and the FAQ names OpenAI, Anthropic and Google as model suppliers. No subprocessor list was read, since the trust centre did not render (8). 17 + 12 + 5 + 8 = 42.
- AutoCua (42): MIT (30). Says it sends data only to the chosen model provider and keeps everything else locally, and the source agrees (20 of 30). No deprecation policy (0). States no telemetry, and none was found (20). 30 + 20 + 0 + 20 = 70.

### Agent ergonomics: Airtop +10

- Airtop (65): AI calls return an answer shaped by the prompt and an optional `outputSchema`, with `costThresholdCredits` and `timeThresholdSeconds` to bound a call. Scrape returns the page content without field selection (18). Sessions list by `offset` and `limit` with a default of 10 and filters for status and IDs, files list the same way, and `paginated-extraction` follows a site's own pages (15). Responses share a documented envelope with `errors` and `warnings` carrying `message`, `code` and `reason`, and AI calls report success, partial or failure. The codes are not listed (12). No idempotency keys. `clientRequestId` is echoed for correlation, and async variants return a request ID to poll (7). A session needs no parameters, and there are official Node and Python SDKs, the Python one last released in April 2025 (13). 18 + 15 + 12 + 7 + 13 = 65.
- AutoCua (55): Framework reading. One call with a mode, provider, model and task runs a whole agent (20 of 25). A separate compression agent splices handoff summaries in, and runs are capped and stoppable (15 of 20). Permission and blocked-input errors are reported specifically, with no error reference (8 of 20). No resume or retry semantics described (2 of 20). Sensible defaults (simulators unless device is set), Python only (10 of 15). 20 + 15 + 8 + 2 + 10 = 55.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | AutoCua | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 25 | Airtop +44 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 42 | Airtop +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 55 | Airtop +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 38 | Airtop +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | AutoCua +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 14 | 65 | AutoCua +51 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 42 | Airtop +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.5 · C** | **44.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | AutoCua |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Ashish Yadav and contributors (ComputerUseAgent on GitHub) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary cloud service under Airtop's terms of use. The Node and Python SDKs are MIT per npm and PyPI | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2025-11-06 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 16 stars, 16k npm/wk | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Airtop

- -0.9 on 4 November 2026: correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### AutoCua

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Airtop.** The cloud browser API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document, Markdown docs, natural-language page calls with a per-call credit cap, and no status incident since 6 August. Credit rates for browser time, proxy traffic and AI calls are not published, the newest stable SDK release is from 6 November 2025, and the developer changelog ends on 3 September 2025.

**AutoCua.** A capable, fast-moving open-source agent for driving desktops, browsers and phones through real input and accessibility trees, with a careful safety section. It's two weeks old, with no test CI or changelog, and on Windows the model itself decides whether to accept an admin elevation prompt.

## Before you call either

### Airtop

1. Terminate every session with `DELETE /v1/sessions/{id}`. Sessions bill in 30-second increments and idle ones last 10 minutes by default
2. Set `costThresholdCredits` on AI calls and read `meta.usage.credits` afterwards. Credit rates are not published, so measure them
3. Use `page-query` with `configuration.outputSchema` for structured output. `prompt-content` and `summarize-content` are deprecated
4. When calling REST without the SDK, poll session status until `running` before creating a window. Only the SDK waits for you
5. Airtop's integrated proxy cannot reach LinkedIn, ticketing sites and some banks and streaming services. Bring a custom proxy for those

### AutoCua

1. pip install AutoCua, then call run_agent with a mode such as "web use" or "computer use", a provider, a model and a task
2. Run it on a machine or account you can afford to lose; it drives real input and keeps logged-in browser profiles
3. On Windows, don't install the Interception driver unless you accept the model deciding UAC prompts
4. Set AutoCua_DATA_DIR to keep keys and profiles somewhere private
5. Phones go over USB from a script; Wi-Fi only through the desktop app

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Airtop or AutoCua?

Airtop scores 54.5 (C) on agent readiness against AutoCua's 44.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AutoCua leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Can an agent call Airtop and AutoCua without installing anything?

Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api. No hosted endpoint is listed for AutoCua.

### Are Airtop and AutoCua open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtop. AutoCua is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or AutoCua

- [agent-browser vs Airtop](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-airtop.md)
- [agent-browser vs AutoCua](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-autocua.md)
- [Airtop vs Anchor Browser](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-anchor-browser.md)
- [Airtop vs Browser Use](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browser-use.md)
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- [Airtop vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
- [Airtop vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-selenium.md)
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- [AutoCua vs Browser Use](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-browser-use.md)
- [AutoCua vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-browserless.md)
- [AutoCua vs BxPlaywright](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-bx-playwright.md)
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- [AutoCua vs Functionize MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-functionize-mcp.md)
- [AutoCua vs Hyperbrowser](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-hyperbrowser.md)
- [AutoCua vs Kane CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-kane-cli.md)
- [AutoCua vs Lightpanda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-lightpanda.md)
- [AutoCua vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-notte.md)
- [AutoCua vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [AutoCua vs Pomerado](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-pomerado.md)
- [AutoCua vs Puppeteer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-puppeteer.md)
- [AutoCua vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
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- [AutoCua vs Selenium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-selenium.md)
- [AutoCua vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-skyvern.md)
- [AutoCua vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-steel.md)
- [AutoCua vs TinyFish](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-tinyfish.md)

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