# Airtop vs Browserless

> Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless.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: 2026-10-08

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do browser automation.

- Airtop: grade C, 55.3/100, rank #511 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airtop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtop.json
- Browserless: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #135 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json

## 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.

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

### Browserless (BB)

Good for: Agents that need a real browser in the cloud with stealth, proxies and CAPTCHA solving, and teams that want the option of running the same server themselves.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 69
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 65
- Security & auth, 53 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 24

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: REST and WebSocket routes take the API token as `?token=` in the URL, which the docs give as the standard method


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Browserless | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 82 | Browserless +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 89 | Browserless +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 78 | Browserless +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 53 | Browserless +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 40 | Browserless +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 24 | 82 | Browserless +58 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 62 | Browserless +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **70.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Browserless |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | browserless.io, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary cloud service under Airtop's terms of use. The Node and Python SDKs are MIT per npm and PyPI | SSPL 1.0 or a commercial licence for the core server and the MCP server. The BAP TypeScript SDK is MIT. BrowserQL, stealth and other cloud additions are proprietary |
| Tools exposed | none | 14 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-01 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 16 stars, 16k npm/wk, 246 PyPI/wk | 14k stars, 3.5k npm/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.

**Browserless.** An OpenAPI document, llms.txt and a 14-tool MCP server with annotations on every tool make the service easy for an agent to read, and the free plan needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string by default, cloud tokens carry no scopes, and no machine payment route exists.

## 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

### Browserless

1. Send the token as `Authorization: Bearer` to the MCP server. On REST and WebSocket routes it goes in `?token=`, so keep those URLs out of logs
2. Close sessions as soon as the work is done. Browser time bills one unit per 30 seconds, rounded up, idle or not
3. For multi-step work with `browserless_agent`, set `keepSessionAlive: true` on the first call and pass the returned `sessionId` after that. Sessions are one-shot by default since server 1.33.0
4. On 429, back off and retry. It means the plan's concurrency limit or queue is full, usually from sessions left open
5. Match the path to the protocol. Use `/chromium` for CDP clients and `/chromium/playwright` only for `playwright.connect()`

## Questions

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

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Airtop and Browserless need an API key?

Airtop needs an API key. Browserless takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api and Browserless at https://production-sfo.browserless.io.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or Browserless

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