# Airtop vs Playwright MCP

> Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability and schema & documentation. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-playwright-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-playwright-mcp.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-playwright-mcp.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-playwright-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

Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability and schema & documentation. 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
- Playwright MCP: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #203 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playwright-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.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 57
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 70

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

### Playwright MCP (B)

Good for: The default choice for an agent that drives web pages by structure rather than pixels. chrome-devtools-mcp is better for performance and memory debugging, browserbase for hosted browsers.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 65
- Security & auth, 57 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 24
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 61

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: `browser_run_code_unsafe` runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Playwright MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 57 | Airtop +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 70 | Airtop +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 84 | Playwright MCP +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 57 | Playwright MCP +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Playwright MCP +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 24 | 84 | Playwright MCP +60 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 72 | Playwright MCP +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **67.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Playwright MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| 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 | 72 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-01 | 2026-09-28 |
| 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 |  |
| 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 | 37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Playwright MCP.** Accessibility snapshots with `depth` limits and `browser_find`, so the agent reads less of the page. `browser_run_code_unsafe` runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off.

## 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

### Playwright MCP

1. Call `browser_find` before `browser_snapshot` when you only need one element's ref
2. Pass `depth` or a `target` to `browser_snapshot` on large pages
3. Run with `--isolated` for untrusted sites. The default profile persists cookies between runs
4. Add `--caps` only for the groups the task needs. Each group adds tools to the schema
5. Pin a version in `npx @playwright/mcp@<version>`. 0.0.x releases can rename tools

## Questions

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

Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability and schema & documentation.

### Do Airtop and Playwright MCP need an API key?

Airtop needs an API key. Playwright MCP needs no key.

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

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

### Are Airtop and Playwright MCP open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or Playwright MCP

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