# Airtop vs Chrome DevTools MCP

> Chrome DevTools MCP scores 77 (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-chrome-devtools-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-chrome-devtools-mcp.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-chrome-devtools-mcp.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-chrome-devtools-mcp.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

Chrome DevTools MCP scores 77 (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 #453 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airtop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtop.json
- Chrome DevTools MCP: grade BB, 77/100, rank #22 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp.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.

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

### Chrome DevTools MCP (BB)

Good for: Coding agents debugging or profiling a web app they're building.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 69
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 65
- Security & auth, 63 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 24
- Transparency & trust, 81 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: Usage statistics go to Google by default until you pass `--no-usage-statistics`


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Chrome DevTools MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 83 | Chrome DevTools MCP +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 87 | Chrome DevTools MCP +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 83 | Chrome DevTools MCP +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 63 | Chrome DevTools MCP +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Chrome DevTools MCP +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 24 | 93 | Chrome DevTools MCP +69 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 81 | Chrome DevTools MCP +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -1 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **77 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Chrome DevTools MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Google (Chrome DevTools team) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | stdio |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 59 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-01 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | 16 stars, 16k npm/wk, 246 PyPI/wk | 49k stars, 1.5M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Chrome DevTools MCP.** Performance traces, network inspection, heap snapshots and Lighthouse audits in one server. Usage statistics go to Google by default until you pass `--no-usage-statistics`.

## 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

### Chrome DevTools MCP

1. Pass `pageId` on every page tool. Call `list_pages` first to get it
2. Start with `--slim` for plain browsing, or turn off categories you don't need
3. Run with `--isolated` for untrusted sites. The default profile persists between runs
4. Use `filePath` on large outputs such as traces and snapshots to keep them out of context
5. Add `--no-usage-statistics` if the operator hasn't agreed to Google telemetry

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Airtop or Chrome DevTools MCP?

Chrome DevTools MCP scores 77 (BB) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Airtop and Chrome DevTools MCP need an API key?

Airtop needs an API key. Chrome DevTools MCP needs no key.

### Can an agent call Airtop and Chrome DevTools MCP without installing anything?

Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api. Chrome DevTools MCP runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Airtop and Chrome DevTools MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtop. Chrome DevTools MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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