# Airtop vs Kernel

> Kernel scores 66.9 (B) to Airtop's 54.5 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-kernel
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-kernel.md (~5,200 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: 2026-11-07

Kernel scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 54.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability. Both do browser automation.

- Airtop: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #908 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airtop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtop.json
- Kernel: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #352 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kernel.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kernel.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 283 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/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 53

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Kernel loses 8 points for them

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

### Kernel (B)

Good for: Agents that need hosted, logged-in browsers at scale with stealth and proxies. browserbase, steel, hyperbrowser and anchor-browser are the nearest listings.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 65
- Security & auth, 81 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 65 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 14

Watch for: Security incident disclosed 4 November 2026, with API keys and customer deployment secrets taken from logs


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Kernel +76

- 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.
- Kernel (90): The changelog's latest entry is 16 October 2026 and the MCP server repository has commits on 6 November (30). More than three dated changes in 90 days, scoped keys, memory tiers, GPU tier and card payments among them (20). A closed service with a public changelog, Discord, email support and an open-source MCP server with 210 commits since 8 August (15). Official SDKs in three languages, and the MCP server in the registry as com.onkernel/kernel-mcp-server 1.1.0 (15). CI and tests in the MCP repository (10). 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 = 90.

### Payments & pricing: Kernel +40

- 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.
- Kernel (65): MPP on POST /mpp/browsers, a 402 challenge paid with a Stripe shared payment token through Link, covering one browser product only, not the API or MCP server (20). Per-second prices public without a login (20). The Developer plan is free with $5 of monthly credit, but whether signup needs a card wasn't stated on the pages read (10). Through MPP an agent gets a browser with no account or key, though a person approves each Link payment (15). 20 + 20 + 10 + 15 = 65.

### Security & auth: Kernel +35

- Airtop (46): API keys from the portal, sent as a Bearer header on REST, CDP and Selenium, so no secret travels in a URL. Scopes, expiry and rotation were not found in the reviewed documentation, and the portal's key page sits behind login (18). No read-only keys or approval step. A person can log in through Live View so the agent never holds the password, profiles are encrypted at rest with AES-256, each browser runs in its own virtual machine per the docs, and credit thresholds cap a call (8). The API returns untrusted page content and runs models over it, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). Optional session recordings, a sessions page with logs in the portal, and credit usage and a request ID on every AI response (10). Airtop states SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, and the pricing page lists the SOC 2 Type 2 report on the Enterprise plan. The Vanta trust centre at trust.airtop.ai needs JavaScript and was not read. www.airtop.ai/.well-known/security.txt still returns 404, and no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found. No advisory for `@airtop/sdk` or `airtop` on OSV (10). 18 + 8 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 46.
- Kernel (81): Scoped API keys with resource and action policies, project scoping and expiry, and OAuth 2.1 for MCP with project-limited tokens (30). Least privilege through scoped keys, a payment cap for cards through the MCP server and vault writes that need their own action (16). Pages an agent browses are untrusted, and we found no prompt-injection guidance in the docs read (4). Audit log search and export on Start-Up and above (13). SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, PCI DSS and ISO 27001 on the security page and a HackerOne bounty (18). 30 + 16 + 4 + 13 + 18 = 81, before the deduction for the November 2026 incident.

### Agent ergonomics: Kernel +19

- 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.
- Kernel (84): Graded mainly on the API, with the MCP server noted. Responses are scoped per resource and the MCP server groups actions into about 32 tools (18). List endpoints page with limit and offset and filter by status (18). Typed SDK errors and documented 409 on concurrent changes, 204 on a pool timeout and 429 (17). Retrying an MPP purchase with the same credential returns the same browser, and the MCP tools carry readOnlyHint where read-only (16). SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go plus a CLI, with defaults such as a 60-second timeout (15). 18 + 18 + 17 + 16 + 15 = 84.

### Schema & documentation: Kernel +17

- 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.
- Kernel (93): OpenAPI at kernel.sh/openapi.json and per-endpoint Markdown reference (25). llms.txt with 423 entries and a Markdown twin for each page (10). Endpoint descriptions say when to use alternatives ("For interactive browsing, use GET /audit-logs", pools for bursty traffic) (17). Typed parameters with enums and limits such as memory sizes and timeout maximums (13). Code samples in TypeScript, Python and Go, and documented status codes such as 409 and 204 on pool acquire (13). A dated public changelog and SDK changelogs (15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 13 + 13 + 15 = 93.

### Reliability: Airtop +16

- 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.
- Kernel (53): Hosted reading. status.kernel.sh on incident.io with a public incident feed (20). In the 90 days from 8 August it lists browser connection failures on 10 September (54 minutes, major), frozen popups on 1 October (71 minutes, major), elevated API errors on 19 October (4 minutes, critical), proxy failures on 23 October (65 minutes, major) and browser creation errors on 4 November (29 minutes, major), plus minor ones. Several majors, two of them an hour or more (0). Rate limits are per organisation with headers on every response, and concurrency is published per plan, but the create-rate numbers aren't (8). 429 with Retry-After, SDK retries with a typed error, safe retry with the same MPP credential and 409 on concurrent pool changes (15). The terms mention service levels in an order form but no public SLA was found (0). The API and MCP server carry no beta label (10). 20 + 0 + 8 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 53.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Kernel | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 53 | Airtop +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 93 | Kernel +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 84 | Kernel +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 81 | Kernel +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 65 | Kernel +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 14 | 90 | Kernel +76 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 61 | Airtop +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -8 | |
| **Total** | | **54.5 · C** | **66.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Kernel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Kernel Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | `https://mcp.onkernel.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary cloud service under Airtop's terms of use. The Node and Python SDKs are MIT per npm and PyPI | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 32 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.onkernel/kernel-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2025-11-06 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | 2026-09-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| 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

### Kernel

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.

**Kernel.** Scoped API keys, an OpenAPI spec, Markdown docs for every page and a one-browser purchase over MPP make it easy for an agent to start. Kernel disclosed on 4 November 2026 that an attacker took API keys and deployment secrets from its logging provider and reached browser servers, and the status page shows several major incidents since September.

## 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

### Kernel

1. Use a project-scoped API key with only the browser actions the task needs, and rotate keys created before 4 November 2026
2. Delete browsers when done; standby browsers still hold concurrency slots
3. Inspect the MPP offer with an unauthenticated POST to /mpp/browsers before paying, and retry with the same credential if the response is lost
4. Treat CDP and live-view URLs as credentials
5. Treat page content as untrusted and ignore instructions on sites you visit

## Questions

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

Kernel scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 54.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability.

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

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

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

Yes. Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api and Kernel at https://mcp.onkernel.com/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or Kernel

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

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp