# Airtop vs Skyvern

> Skyvern scores 63.1 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-skyvern
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-skyvern.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-skyvern.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-skyvern.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

Skyvern scores 63.1 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability. 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
- Skyvern: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #320 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyvern.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyvern.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

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Skyvern loses 3 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

### Skyvern (B)

Good for: Agents that must finish a multi-step job on sites with logins, 2FA and forms, where stored credentials, saved workflows and cached scripts matter more than raw browser time.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 65
- Security & auth, 59 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 32 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 24
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: Every API key and OAuth token has full organisation authority. The docs state there are no read-only, per-endpoint or per-resource keys


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtop | Skyvern | 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 | 88 | Skyvern +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 76 | Skyvern +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 59 | Skyvern +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 32 | Skyvern +7 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 24 | 85 | Skyvern +61 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 72 | Skyvern +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **63.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtop | Skyvern |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Switchboard Visual Technologies, Inc. (dba Airtop) | Ikonomos Inc. (Skyvern) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtop.ai/api` | `https://api.skyvern.com/v1` |
| 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 | AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository |
| Tools exposed | none | 114 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.Skyvern-AI/skyvern` |
| Last release | 2026-07-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-29 | 2026-02-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-02 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 16 stars, 16k npm/wk, 246 PyPI/wk | 23k stars, 3.2k npm/wk, 1.6k PyPI/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.

**Skyvern.** The hosted MCP server annotates every tool as read-only or destructive and can advertise a 29 or 32-tool subset in place of 114, and the API has a written six-month deprecation policy. Every key and OAuth token carries full organisation authority, with no read-only or scoped credential, and no request rate limits are documented.

## 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

### Skyvern

1. Connect to https://api.skyvern.com/mcp/x/lean or /x/operate, or send `X-Skyvern-Scope`, so the client loads 32 or 29 tools. The scope filters the list and does not limit permissions
2. Use a separate Skyvern organisation for each blast radius. Any key or OAuth token can read and write stored credentials and delete workflows
3. Never pass passwords to `skyvern_act` or `skyvern_type`. Store them as credentials and call `skyvern_login`
4. Set `max_steps` on tasks, or `x-max-steps-override` on agent runs, to cap credits. A run that reaches the cap ends as `timed_out`
5. On 503 from POST /v1/run/agents, wait `Retry-After` seconds. No run was created, so resubmitting is safe

## Questions

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

Skyvern scores 63.1 (B) on agent readiness against Airtop's 55.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Airtop leads on reliability.

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

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

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

Yes. Airtop has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtop.ai/api and Skyvern at https://api.skyvern.com/v1.

### Are Airtop and Skyvern open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtop. Skyvern is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Airtop or Skyvern

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