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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Airtop vs Browser Use

Browser Use scores 77.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do browser automation. Browser Use accepts x402. Airtop doesn't.

AirtopSwitchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) · HTTP API C55.3/100#453 of 629 Browser UseBrowser Use · HTTP API BB77.9/100#16 of 629

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

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

Browser Use BB

Good for An agent that wants to hand a whole browser task to a hosted agent and get a result back, or that needs a low-cost cloud browser over CDP, and for unattended agents that can pay by x402.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 87 against 69
  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 76
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 65
  • Security & auth, 59 against 46
  • Payments & pricing, 90 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 24

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

The privacy policy says inputs are used to train Browser Use's AI models, with no opt-out described outside Enterprise zero data retention

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAirtopBrowser UseEdge
Reliability16%206987Browser Use +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27685Browser Use +9
Agent ergonomics13%16.26578Browser Use +13
Security & auth14%17.54659Browser Use +13
Payments & pricing10%12.52590Browser Use +65
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82477Browser Use +53
Transparency & trust7%8.86165Browser Use +4
Negative events≤1500
Total55.3 · C77.9 · BB

Facts side by side

FactAirtopBrowser Use
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorSwitchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop)Browser Use
Hosted endpointhttps://api.airtop.ai/apihttps://api.browser-use.com/api/v4
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402noyes
LicenceProprietary cloud service under Airtop's terms of use. The Node and Python SDKs are MIT per npm and PyPIMIT for the open-source library and the SDK. Browser Use Cloud is a proprietary service under Browser Use's terms of service
Tools exposednone7
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedcom.browser-use/browser-use
Last release2026-07-012026-10-07
Terms last updated2025-07-292026-07-15
Privacy policy last updated2025-09-02no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity16 stars, 16k npm/wk, 246 PyPI/wk117k stars, 107k npm/wk, 2.1M PyPI/wk

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 a status page with no incident in the last 90 days. Credit rates for browser time, proxy traffic and AI calls are not published, and the developer changelog's last entry is dated 3 September 2025.

Browser Use

The hosted cloud accepts x402 top-ups in USDC on Base with no account or API key, and publishes prices, rate limits and three OpenAPI documents. The privacy policy says inputs are used to train Browser Use's models, API keys have no documented scopes, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs.

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

Browser Use

  1. Send the key as X-Browser-Use-API-Key with no Bearer prefix. A Bearer header returns 401
  2. Stop browsers with PATCH /api/v4/browsers/{id} and {"action":"stop"}. Closing CDP or the SDK client leaves the browser billing
  3. Poll GET /runs/{id}/status, not the full run, and wait for the returned Retry-After on 429, which can be 300 seconds at the edge
  4. Before resubmitting after a timeout, read the existing run's status. The server keeps running and may already have submitted a form
  5. With a wallet and no key, call x402.api.browser-use.com on /api/v2 or /api/v3 routes. A task stops with INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS if credit runs out mid-run

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Airtop or Browser Use?

Browser Use scores 77.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category.

Do Airtop and Browser Use need an API key?

Both need an API key. An agent can also pay Browser Use per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Airtop and Browser Use without installing anything?

Yes. Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api and Browser Use at https://api.browser-use.com/api/v4.

Are Airtop and Browser Use open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtop. Browser Use is open source (MIT for the open-source library and the SDK. Browser Use Cloud is a proprietary service under Browser Use's terms of service).

Other comparisons with Airtop or Browser Use

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