# Airtop vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

> Airtop scores 55.3 (C) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Category…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- 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

Airtop scores 55.3 (C) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. 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
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server): grade F, 30.6/100, rank #712 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.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 12
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 41
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 47
- Security & auth, 46 against 22
- Maintenance & community, 24 against 0

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 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

### Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) (F)

Good for: Nothing new.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 61

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

Watch for: Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 12 | Airtop +57 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 41 | Airtop +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 47 | Airtop +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 22 | Airtop +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 24 | 0 | Airtop +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 75 | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **30.6 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| 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 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 7 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-01 | 2025-05-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | 2023-03-15 |
| 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, 246 PyPI/wk | 294 stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (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.

**Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server).** Seven tools in about 700 tokens, every input with a `required` list. Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm.

## 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

### Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

1. Don't install it for new work. playwright-mcp covers the same tasks with snapshots and annotations
2. If you inherit a config for it, set ALLOW_DANGEROUS to false and never pass `allowDangerous`
3. Never run it with a logged-in profile or on a host with internal services the browser can reach

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Airtop or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)?

Airtop scores 55.3 (C) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Airtop and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) need an API key?

Airtop needs an API key. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) needs no key.

### Can an agent call Airtop and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) without installing anything?

Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Airtop and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtop. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

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

## Disclosure

- MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing.